Possible close analogy between HIV and EBV infection and, respectively, induced lymphomas.
Within a system that operatively allows a progressive infection of T-lymphocytes by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in a manner that also entails depletion of the T-helper subset with directly resulting severe immunodeficiency, there might also be implicated a form of modulation of effects conducive to neoplastic transformation based on peculiar consequences of lesions induced by HIV integration within the cell genome. It might, in addition, be valid to consider Epstein Barr virus (EBV) as a cause of both B-lymphocyte infection and also of the creation of a whole population of atypical T-lymphocytes as seen in infectious mononucleosis, to constitute a close parallel analogy to HIV; in this manner it might be suggestive also of a series of analogous reactive lymphocytic changes also in AIDS; such a phenomenon might perhaps help account for the emergence in some AIDS patients of a primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma that is virtually always of B-cell derivation, analogous to Burkitt's lymphoma that is also of B-cell origin. In addition, the occurrence of T-cell rich B-cell lymphoma would appear perhaps to constitute a series of phenomena that intricately implicate both B-lymphocyte and T-lymphocyte participation in the genesis even of lymphomatous states as a category.
Agius
Lawrence M
LM
Department of Pathology, St. Luke's Hospital, University of Malta, Malta. lawrence.agius@um.edu.mt
D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D020031:Epstein-Barr Virus Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007153:Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes / Q000276:immunology; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000276:immunology; D016483:Lymphoma, AIDS-Related / Q000276:immunology*