Cancers associated with human gammaherpesviruses

Abstract

Epstein–Barr virus (EBV; human herpesvirus 4; HHV‐4) and Kaposi sarcoma‐associated herpesvirus (KSHV; human herpesvirus 8; HHV‐8) are human gammaherpesviruses that have oncogenic properties. EBV is a lymphocryptovirus, whereas HHV‐8/KSHV is a rhadinovirus. As lymphotropic viruses, EBV and KSHV are associated with several lymphoproliferative diseases or plasmacytic/plasmablastic neoplasms. Interestingly, these viruses can also infect epithelial cells causing carcinomas and, in the case of KSHV, endothelial cells, causing sarcoma. EBV is associated with Burkitt lymphoma, classic Hodgkin lymphoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, plasmablastic lymphoma, lymphomatoid granulomatosis, leiomyosarcoma, and subsets of diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma, post‐transplant lymphoproliferative disorder, and gastric carcinoma. KSHV is implicated in Kaposi sarcoma, primary effusion lymphoma, multicentric Castleman disease, and KSHV‐positive diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma. Pathogenesis by these two herpesviruses is intrinsically linked to viral proteins expressed during the lytic and latent lifecycles. This comprehensive review intends to provide an overview of the EBV and KSHV viral cycles, viral proteins that contribute to oncogenesis, and the current understanding of the pathogenesis and clinicopathology of their related neoplastic entities.

Flavonoids Target Human Herpesviruses That Infect the Nervous System: Mechanisms of Action and Therapeutic Insights

“…Human alpha-herpesviruses include herpes simplex virus type 1 and type 2 (HSV-1 and HSV-2) and varicella-zoster virus (VZV or HHV-3), while human beta-herpesviruses include human cytomegalovirus (HCMV or HHV-5), HHV-6, and HHV-7. Human gamma-herpesviruses include Epstein–Barr virus (EBV or HHV-4) and Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), which is also known as HHV-8 [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ].…”

Immunosuppressive Tumor Microenvironment and Immunotherapy of Epstein–Barr Virus-Associated Malignancies

“…This offers important insights into the natural infectious history of EBV and the mechanisms of how this virus drives the oncogenic process. EBV, also known as human herpesvirus 4, a member of the gammaherpesvirus subfamily [ 3 ], is characterized by the most common virus infection in humans, with a prevalence of more than 95% in the human population worldwide [ 4 ]. This virus normally persists as a lifelong infection without symptoms in humans, thus striking a subtle balance between the virus, the host cell, and the host immune system [ 5 ].…”

Vesicular Stomatitis Virus-Based Epstein-Barr Virus Vaccines Elicit Strong Protective Immune Responses

“…Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), also known as human herpesvirus 4 (HHV-4), is a double-stranded DNA virus that was the first identified human tumor virus ( 1 ). Since the discovery of EBV in 1964 ( 2 ), tremendous effort has been made to develop a prophylactic vaccine to prevent EBV infection and numerous etiologically related malignant and benign diseases, where EBV infection results in 265,000 incident cases and 164,000 deaths of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), Burkitt’s lymphoma (BL), Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), and gastric cancer (GC) ( 1 , 3 – 5 ).…”