Epidemiology of Human Herpesvirus Type 8 Infection in Cardiopathic Patients

Abstract

Problem statement: The possible contribution of viruses to vascular pathology is still a\ud controversial issue. Human herpesvirus type 8 (HHV-8) has been suggested to participate to the\ud pathogenetic events associated with atherosclerotic lesion establishment and progression. Recently, a\ud high incidence of infection of HHV-8 (11%) has been verified in the island of Sardinia. The aim of this\ud study was to evaluate a possible relationship between the HHV-8 infection and cardiovascular diseases in\ud the South of Sardinia. Approach: The presence of HHV-8 genome was detected in DNA extracted from\ud peripheral leucocytes, by nested-PCR and Southern blotting, in either acute or chronic cardiopathic\ud patients (n = 180); healthy blood donors were examined as controls (n = 108). Results: The results\ud demonstrated a significant increase (p = 0.035) in HHV-8 DNA isolation from cardiopathic patients\ud (22.8%) in comparison to healthy controls (12.0%). Conclusion: HHV8 infection can be considered,\ud among others, as an additional risk factor for cardiovascular disease development, although it was not\ud necessarily the starting cause. More extensive studies were needed to define the exact role of HHV-8\ud infection in cardiopathic patients

Neutral lipid alterations in Human Herpesvirus 8-infected HUVEC cells and their possible involvement in neo-angiogenesis

“…Total RNA was extracted with a pureLink RNA Mini kit (Life Technologies, UK) and treated with TURBO DNase (Applied Biosystems, UK) before the synthesis of cDNA with a Super Script VILO kit (Invitrogen, Life Technologies, UK). RT-PCR amplification was performed using 200 ng of total RNA extracted from the infected cells as previously indicated [ 23 - 25 ]. Primers and conditions for RT-PCR amplification were as follows: orf26 took place with primers orf26 fw 5′-GCCGAAAGGATTCCACCATTGTGCT-3′ and orf26 rev 5′- GGGCCCCGGCCGATATTTTGG-3′ for 40 cycles (15'' at 95°C, 1' at 60°C and 15'' at 72°C) plus 10' at 72°C of extension; orf50 amplification took place with primers orf50 fw 5′-CATGCAGCGGGGTGAGCCTG-3′ and orf50 rev 5′- AGCAGCCCGGCGGTATCGTA-3′ for 40 cycles (15'' at 95°C, 1′ at 60°C and 15′ at 72°C); orf73 amplification took place with primers orf73 fw 5′- ATCCTCGGGAAATCTGGTCT-3′ and orf73 rev 5′-TTCAGCGTTTCAGTGTCTGC-3′ for 40 cycles (15'' at 95°C, 1′ at 60°C and 15′ at 72°C) plus 10′ at 72°C of extension.…”

Human Herpesvirus 8 and Host-Cell Interaction: Long-Lasting Physiological Modifications, Inflammation and Related Chronic Diseases

“…The findings that HHV8 latency is characterized by persistent modifications in endothelial cell metabolism have led some authors to hypothesize a possible involvement of HHV8 infection in the development of a diffused chronic human disease such as DMT2 [65,75,[78][79][80][81][82]. Although KS is considered a rare disease, HHV8 infection has been found to have a high prevalence in some countries, namely in the Mediterranean and African regions [81][82][83]. Ingianni et al [81] were the first authors to demonstrate a strong epidemiological correlation between HHV8-infection and DMT2 patients in a Southern Italian region.…”

Human Herpesvirus 8 infection may contribute to oxidative stress in diabetes type 2 patients

“…Several studies have demonstrated that HHV8 infection induces intense and long-lasting alterations in the physiology of infected cells [3][4][5]. HHV8 has also been associated to widely diffused chronic diseases [6][7][8][9][10][11][12], such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2). HHV8 induces a permanent inflammatory condition with impairment of B-lymphocyte activity and alteration in the function of NK-cells [13,14], as also found in DM2 patients.…”