Subtypes of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in Hodgkin's disease: association between B-type EBV and immunocompromise [see comments]

Abstract

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has been associated with Hodgkin‧s disease (HD) in up to 50% of cases, but the subtype of EBV involved has only recently been studied. In this report, biopsy samples from 30 patients with HD were assessed for EBV sequences using both the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and in situ hybridization (ISH). EBV sequences were localized to the malignant Reed-Sternberg cells and their mononuclear variants (Hodgkin's cells) in 9 of the 30 cases, with 7 demonstrating A- type and 2 B-type EBV sequences. Both of the patients with B-type EBV- associated HD had features to suggest pre-existing immune compromise: one was infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and had severe CD4+ T-lymphocyte depletion; the other was a debilitated elderly patient with dementia. A previous study suggested that A-type EBV alone is associated with HD and the finding of predominantly A-type EBV in the present series is in keeping with this report. The presence of B- type EBV in the HD of patients with pre-existing immunodeficiency, taken together with the recent report that B-type EBV occurs in HIV- associated non-Hodgkin‧s lymphoma, suggests that B-type EBV may be an important human pathogen in immunocompromised patients.

Human and viral interleukin‐10 in Hodgkin's disease, and its influence on CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes

“…Moss et al (1988) isolated both CD4 and CD8 cytotoxic T-cell clones that recognize the autologous A-type but not the B-type trans-formed lymphoblastoid cell lines. In HD with an EBV infection, almost all cases were of A-type (Boyle et al, 1993). In our study, all cases except one were of A-type.…”

“…Isolated DNA were used for a polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We synthesized specific primers, to examine the A and B subtypes of the EBV EBNA2 region, on the basis of the published DNA sequence, which corresponded to the Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen (EBNA) 2 region, to detect the A-and B-subtypes of EBV (Boyle et al, 1993). After PCR amplifica-'To whom correspondence and reprint requests should be sent, at the Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Fukuoka University, Nanakuma 7-45-1, Jonan-ku, Fukuoka 814-01, Japan.…”

Paediatric Hodgkin's disease in Spain: association with Epstein‐Barr virus strains carrying latent membrane protein‐1 oncogene deletions and high frequency of dual infections

“…Seroprevalence studies have shown that type 2 EBV is unusual in healthy Western populations but relatively frequent in Central Africa and New Guinea. An increased proportion of type 2 positivity has also been reported in patients with HIV infection and in transplant recipients ( Sculley et al , 1990 ; Borisch et al , 1992 ; Boyle et al , 1993 ; De Re et al , 1993 ). By studying the EBNA‐3C gene, we determined that, despite an EBV type 1 prevalence, both in our healthy children and in the paediatric HD population, there was a markedly different distribution of type 2 between the two groups: none of the cases of normal lymphoid tissue contained type 2 EBV and, in contrast, as much as 25% of childhood HD cases harboured it.…”

“…It has been proposed that type 2 EBV, which is a less efficient transforming agent than type 1, may require a reduced immunocompetent status to establish widespread infection in vivo and induce the outgrowth of lymphoproliferative disorders ( Boyle et al , 1993). The presence of type 2 EBV in 25 % of children with HD may reflect an impairment of immune function.…”

Genotypic and phenotypic alterations in Epstein–Barr virus‐associated lymphoma

“…15 For EBV subtype, we synthesized primers based on the previous report. 16 The primers (EBNA2 A-5 0 , EBNA2 A-3 0 , EBNA2B-5 0 , EBNA2B-3 0 ) were synthesized. EBV-positive cases were amplified with a second set of primers that immediately flank the polymorphic portion of the EBV LYDMA gene comprising variable numbers of approximately 30 base pairs tandem repeats.…”