Detection of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) genomes in the serum of patients with EBV-associated Hodgkin's disease

✍ Scribed by Alice Gallagher; Alison A. Armstrong; Jane MacKenzie; Lesley Shield; Gulfaraz Khan; Annette Lake; Stephen Proctor; Penny Taylor; Geoffrey B. Clements; Ruth F. Jarrett

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 281 KB
• Volume: 84
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0215(19990820)84:4<442::aid-ijc20>3.0.co;2-j

✦ Synopsis

DNA from malignant cells is present in the serum/plasma of cancer patients and DNA from this source is amenable to analysis by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In the present study, we evaluated whether Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA is present in the serum of patients with EBV-associated Hodgkin's disease (HD). Using conventional PCR, EBV DNA was detected in serum from 30/33 patients with EBVassociated HD but in only 6/26 patients with non-EBVassociated disease (p F 0.001). Samples from healthy individuals were negative and only 5/12 infectious mononucleosis samples were positive. Real-time quantitative PCR was subsequently employed to determine the concentration of EBV DNA present in serum; among positive samples the level ranged from 1 to 705 copies per 125 l of serum. Posttreatment samples from 5/14 cases with EBV-associated HD contained detectable EBV DNA; analysis of this small group of cases suggests that positivity in post-treatment samples correlates with risk factors indicative of a poor prognosis. Overall, our results are consistent with the notion that DNA from Reed-Sternberg cells is present in the serum of HD patients, and further suggest that serum EBV should be evaluated as a prognostic marker.