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.
The present report analyses the distribution of 30-base pair (bp) latent membrane protein-1 (LMP-1) oncogene deletions in 24 cases of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positive paediatric Hodgkin's disease (HD) and 39 normal controls. The 30 bp deletion was identified in 19/24 paediatric HD cases (79.2%), of which seven (29.2%) showed the deleted fragment alone, whereas in the remaining 12 (50%) it was accompanied by the nondeleted fragment. Conversely, the deletion was found in 8/22 (36.4%) EBV-positive healthy children, in two (9.1%) of whom the deleted fragment was alone, and was coinfecting with the nondeleted fragment in the other six (27.3%). The LMP-1 deletion was significantly associated with paediatric HD, both including dual infections (P=0.006) or excluding them (P=0.01). Type 2 EBV was carried by 25% of HD children, whereas all controls harboured type 1 EBV. The 30 bp deletion was present in all the paediatric HD specimens that contained type 2 EBV, suggesting that a deleted type 2 EBV strain may be more tumourigenic than a nondeleted type 2 EBV strain. These findings indicate that EBV strains carrying a 30 bp deletion in the third exon of the LMP-1 oncogene may have a more important role in the pathogenesis of paediatric HD than full-length EBV strains. Dual infection by LMP-1 deleted and nondeleted EBV strains is a frequent event both in healthy children and in the paediatric HD population.
Santón
A
A
Pathology Department, Ramón y Cajal Hospital, University of Alcalá, Madrid, Spain.
Martín
C
C
Manzanal
A I
AI
Preciado
M V
MV
Bellas
C
C
D002675:Child, Preschool; D017353:Gene Deletion; D006566:Herpesviridae Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000235:genetics; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000235:genetics*; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D017421:Sequence Analysis; D014763:Viral Matrix Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
C037662:EBV-associated membrane antigen, Epstein-Barr virus; D014763:Viral Matrix Proteins