Abstract

HERNANDEZ, Dimas E et al. Virus herpes humano 8: Detección en células mononucleares de sangre periférica de pacientes con la infección por el virus de inmunodeficiencia humana con/sin sarcoma de Kaposi. Gac Méd Caracas. [online]. 2008, vol.116, n.1, pp.18-22. ISSN 0367-4762.

The nucleic acid of human herpes virus 8 is present in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of between 50 % and 90 % of Kaposi sarcoma patients, 7 % and 10 % of human immunodeficiency virus infected patients without Kaposi sarcoma. We studied the prevalence of human herpes virus 8 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection with/without Kaposi sarcoma. Seventy-six patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection without Kaposi sarcoma and 15 patients with Kaposi sarcoma associated with human immunodeficiency virus infection were included. Desoxirribonucleico acid was extracted from the samples by a standard phenol/chloroform extraction procedure. Desoxirribonucleico acid was polimerase chain reaction amplified using Kaposi sarcoma 1 and Kaposi sarcoma 2 primers specific for the human herpes virus 8 ORF26. Polimerase chain reaction reactions were considered positive only if the polimerase chain reaction products hybridized in the expected 233 bp region. None of human immunodeficiency virus infected patients showed the presence of human herpes virus 8 in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells, and after a follow-up of 2 years, none has developed Kaposi sarcoma. Human herpes virus 8 was detected in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 20 % of patients with Kaposi sarcoma. All patients belonged to a “high risk group”, were male and homosexuals. None received blood transfusion. These preliminary data suggest thatthe prevalence of human herpes virus 8 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from human immunodeficiency virus infected patients with/without Kaposi sarcoma is probably low in comparison with patients from EE.UUand Europe.

Keywords : Human immunodeficiency virus; Kaposi sarcoma; Human herpes virus 8.