Human herpesvirus type 8 genotypes in iatrogenic, classic and AIDS-associated Kaposi's sarcoma from Greece.
BACKGROUND
Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV)/human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) is consistently found in almost all observed Kaposi's sarcomas (KS), whether AIDS-associated, iatrogenic or classic. To our knowledge no data are available on the genetic polymorphism of HHV-8 from Greece. We report the study of 15 renal transplant recipients with KS, 5 with AIDS-associated KS, 11 with classic KS and 60 healthy individuals from Greece.


METHODS
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was carried out on DNA extracted from peripheral-blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) or KS cutaneous biopsies, using specific primers for the HHV-8, KS330 fragment from ORF-26 (233 bp) and the highly variable region (VR1) from ORF-K1 (363 bp).


RESULTS
HHV-8 DNA was detected in 30 out of 31 (97%) KS cases, regardless of their clinico-pathological subtype and in 10 out of 60 (16.7%) healthy individuals. Sequencing of the ORF26 fragment demonstrated that the 40 HHV-8 strains were of the A and C sub-types. Furthermore, sequencing of the ORF-K1 showed that these HHV-8 strains of Greek origin were of the A1, A4, C1 or C3 sub-type.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings imply a possible link of the C3 subtype of HHV-8 in renal transplant-related KS cases (iatrogenic KS) in Greece, a link of the A4 subtype in AIDS-associated KS cases and a potential involvement of the A1 subtype in Greek classic KS incidences, as HHV-8 strains among healthy individual tested belong to the C1, C3 or A1 subtypes.
Gazouli
M
M
Department of Biology, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
Papaconstantinou
I
I
Zavos
G
G
Metaxa-Mariatou
V
V
Nasioulas
G
G
Boletis
J
J
Arapadoni-Dadioti
P
P
Giaslakiotis
K
K
Zografidis
A
A
Kostakis
A
A
D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000097:blood / Q000821:virology*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001706:Biopsy; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D005838:Genotype; D006115:Greece; D015497:HIV-1; D019288:Herpesvirus 8, Human / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000821:virology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012514:Sarcoma, Kaposi / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D016415:Sequence Alignment
D004279:DNA, Viral