Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jun:51:102872.
doi: 10.1016/j.msard.2021.102872. Epub 2021 Feb 28.

First report of HHV-8 viral load and seroprevalence of major blood-borne viruses in Iranian patients with systemic sclerosis

Ava Hashempour  1 , Javad Moayedi  2 , Zahra Musavi  1 , Farzaneh Ghasabi  1 , Mehrdad Halaji  3 , Zahra Hasanshahi  1 , Mohammad Ali Nazarinia  4
Affiliations

First report of HHV-8 viral load and seroprevalence of major blood-borne viruses in Iranian patients with systemic sclerosis

Ava Hashempour et al. Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2021 Jun.

Abstract

Background: Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is characterized by autoimmune manifestations, and viral infections may have a key role in the development and progression of it. This study aimed to investigate the seroprevalence of major blood-borne viruses and HHV-8 viral load in Iranian SSc patients.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 90 patients with a confirmed history of SSc and 90 healthy blood donors were enrolled. The frequency of HHV-8, CMV, EBV, HIV, HBV, and HCV antibodies and HHV-8 viral load were evaluated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and real-time PCR assay, respectively.

Results: HHV-8 IgG antibody was diagnosed in 61 (67.8%) patients and 3 (3.3%) healthy individuals (p<0.0001), but its genomic DNA was not detected in the patients or healthy blood donors. CMV and EBV antibodies were detected in 100% and 88.9% of SSc patients without any significant difference with healthy population (p>0.05). None of the patients or healthy population was positive for HBsAg and HIVAb; however, HCVAb was detected in two patients.

Conclusion: According to the results, HHV-8 antibody was uniquely increased in SSc population while its frequency in healthy population was very low. Since none of the SSc patients were positive for HHV-8 genomic DNA, the high prevalence of HHV-8 antibody in this group was not related to the real history of infection. Therefore, antibody-mediated epitope mimicry can play a role to get the high rate of seropositivity and lead to pathogeneses of SSc. Besides, CMV and EBV viral load monitoring in SSc patients can help the physician to prescribe the viral drugs to suppress the viral replication and avoid the crucial effect of reactivation.

Keywords: Antibody; HHV-8; Mimicry; Systemic sclerosis; Viral infections.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest There is no conflict of interest to disclose.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

Substances

LinkOut - more resources