Presence of Herpes Simplex DNA in Surgical Tissue From Human Epileptic Seizure Foci Detected by Polymerase Chain Reaction

Abstract

There was a statistically significant difference in the frequency of HSV-positive surgical specimens from monofocal seizure epicenters compared with nonepilepsy control specimens. These data suggest an association of the virus with seizure activity. All specimens positive for HSV (surgical specimens and control specimens) should be examined to determine the activity or latency state of the virus and cellular localization.

Investigation of HSV-1, HSV-2, CMV, HHV-6 and HHV-8 DNA by real-time PCR in surgical resection materials of epilepsy patients with mesial temporal lobe sclerosis

“…In the study by Sanders et al, 8 patients had hippocampal sclerosis, and of those, only four hippocampal tissue samples were used for the detection of HSV-1 [8]. Five of the 8 patients were older than 30 years; therefore it was not possible for us to correlate our data with their results as the rate of the detection of viral DNA rises with the age [18].…”

“…The ages were above 30 in some studies and the location of the extracted tissue was hippocampus, temporal lobe, frontal lobe etc. [8]. Our study is partially homogenous as in all of the patients hippocampus was examined and they all had hippocampal sclerosis.…”

“…Reports about PCR analysis of herpes viruses in brain tissue of patients with MTLE show varying results [1,7,8]. This is partly due to the heterogeneous makeup of the study groups in terms of neuropathology, surgical material, and age.…”

“…The detection of HSV-1 DNA in CNS tissue using PCR technique was previously reported as 40-50% [7,8]. In the study by Sanders et al, 8 patients had hippocampal sclerosis, and of those, only four hippocampal tissue samples were used for the detection of HSV-1 [8].…”

“…They can establish lifelong latent infection and reactivation can occur [7]. It is well known that herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), type 2 (HSV-2), and human herpes virus-6 (HHV-6) are related to symptomatic epilepsies [1,8,9]. HHV-6 was found to be the cause of febrile convulsions [10,11].…”