Presence of human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) DNA sequences in patients with lymphoproliferative diseases and chronic blood disorders

Oncogenic viruses and chemoresistance: What do we know?

Chemoresistance is often referred to as a major leading reason for cancer therapy failure, causing cancer relapse and further metastasis. As a result, an urgent need has been raised to reach a full comprehension of chemoresistance-associated molecular pathways, thereby designing new therapy methods. Many of metastatic tumor masses are found to be related with a viral cause. Although combined therapy is perceived as the model role therapy in such cases, chemoresistant features, which is more common in viral carcinogenesis, often get into way of this kind of therapy, minimizing the chance of survival. Some investigations indicate that the infecting virus dominates other leading factors, i.e., genetic alternations and tumor microenvironment, in development of cancer cell chemoresistance. Herein, we have gathered the available evidence on the mechanisms under which oncogenic viruses cause drug-resistance in chemotherapy.

Molecular Epidemiology of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in Patients with Hematologic Malignancies

Background:

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is associated with different malignant diseases, such as Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and lymphoproliferative disorders. Patients with hematologic malignancies by variable severity could be suspected for the infection with different types of this virus. This preliminary study reported the genotyping and related viral load of Epstein-Barr virus in Iranian patients with hematologic malignancies for estimation of possible factors affecting malignancy.

Methods:

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of HL (n=20), NHL (n=29), acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) (n=18) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) (n=12) were obtained. After DNA extraction, a nested-PCR and a conventional-PCR targeting EBNA-2 and EBNA-3C genes were performed. A real-time PCR assay for viral load quantitation carried out. Standard curve analysis used for evaluation of amplification specificity.

Results:

Of 79 included patients, 34 (43%) were EBV positive. There were 23.5% (8/34), 38.2% (13/34), 23.5% (8/34), 14.8% (5/34) in HL, NHL, ALL and CLL groups, respectively. Also, the main genotype was genotype I (91.2%) which it follows by 8.8% (3/34) genotype II. The real-time PCR assay showed the mean viral load ± std. deviation was 2.75×10⁵ ± 1.202×10⁶ copies/μg DNA and the higher viral load was seen in NHL patients.

Conclusion:

This preliminary investigation in Iran shows that the main EBV genotype into our region probably is genotype I (91.2%) which it is similar to others. We could not find any statistically significant association between the virus infection and viral load with any specific disease and patients’ demographic data.

The Molecular Detection of Human Bocavirus (HBoV) in Colorectal Tissue with Malignant and Non-Malignant Lesions

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) as a worldwide human health concern is identified being a multifactorial subject that infection with specific viral particles such as oncogenic viruses is research interest. Human bocavirus (HBoV) as a recent isolated virus has been investigated in many respiratory and enteric diseases but rare studies evaluates it in tissue specimens especially in cancerous sections. The aim of this study was to detect the presence of HBoV genome and its genotyping in CRC patient’s tissue and compare the result with matched healthy control group tissue. Method: in this retrospective case-control study, CRC cases were sporadic and non-familial cancerous while control subjects had healthy or non-malignant lesions in colon tissue. A conventional-PCR performed by specific primers for HBoV VP1 gene. After sequencing of positive PCR products, raw data used for trimming and alignment by bioinformatics software CLC Main Workbench 5 and MEGA5. SPSS v.22 used for statistical calculations. Result: a total of 157 subjects were participated that 66 were diagnosed as CRC cases and 91 were non-CRC colon tissue as control group that matched by the cases. The mean age (y) ± standard deviation of each case and control groups were 59.35±14.48 and 57.21±14.66, respectively. PCR results showed there were 1.3% (2/157) HBoV positive (of each groups one was positive). Sequencing analysis showed all were HBoV-1 genotype. Conclusion: our study showed there are low rate of HBoV genome in Iranian CRC and non-CRC colon tissue. Furthermore, the predominant genotype in our studied subsets were HBoV-1 according to phylogenetic analysis.

A Survey on Human T-cell Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 (HTLV-1) and Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Virus-Related Virus (XMRV) Coinfection in Tehran, Iran

Background:

Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) is a gamma retrovirus, which has been detected in patients with prostate cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, and general population with a number of acquired infections such as infection with human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The aim of this study was to determine the HTLV-1 and XMRV coinfection for the first time in Iranian patients who were admitted to the Tehran hospitals.

Materials and Methods:

Two hundred and ninety one patients suspected with HTLV-1 were referred to the hospitals affiliated to the Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran from April 2012 to October 2016. Genomic deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)/ribonucleic acid (RNA) from peripheral blood mononuclear cells/cerebrospinal fluids was extracted by High Pure Viral Nucleic Acid Kit (Roche, Germany). After complementary DNA synthesis, conventional reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction was used for the detection of HTLV-1 or XMRV-infected patients. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software, version 16 (SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA) was used for statistical analyses.

Results:

Of the 291 patients suspected of HTLV infection, 123 (42.3%) were male with a mean age of 38±15 years. HTLV-1 RNA was found in 93 (31.9%) specimens comprising 40 men (41.3%) and 53 women (56.9%). Of the 93 patients who were HTLV-1 positive, one sample (1%) was positive for XMRV env gene.

Conclusion:

These findings suggest that the lack of significant detection of XMRV in patients who were HTLV-1 positive could not be associated with complications of HTLV-1. Although this is a preliminary report from Iranian patients with HTLV-1, further studies are needed to show the actual prevalence of XMRV infection by geographical distribution and various populations.