title: Human parvovirus B19 in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in Basrah.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the association of human parvovirus B19 infection with the onset of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and its effect on TEL-AML-1 fusion gene and the presence of mutant P53.
  
  
  METHODS
  The case-control study was conducted at Basrah Hospital for Paediatrics and Gynaecology, Basrah, Iraq, from May 2009 to April 2010. A total of 100 blood samples were collected from 40 newly diagnosed cases and 60 healthy children to serve as control matched by age and gender. Human parvovirus B19-IgG and anti-P53 antibody were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and TEL-AML-1 fusion gene was detected by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction on extracted ribonucleic acid from fresh blood samples using specified primers. SPSS 15 was used for statistical analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A higher proportion of human parvovirus B19-positive cases was found in leukaemic patients (n=19; 47.5%) compared to 12 (20%) in the control group (p<0.05). There was significant association between TEL-AML-1 translocation and human parvovirus-B19 infection as 10 (71.4%) of TEL-AML-1 translocation-positive cases had human parvovirus-B19 IgG. On the other hand, there was no association between such infections and P53 gene mutation in the patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Human parvovirus-B19 infection is common in the population, with higher prevalence among leukaemic patients with significant association between human parvovirus-B19 and TEL-AML-1 fusion gene in patients of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Department of Paediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq.
authors.forename: Wijdan Nazar
authors.initials: WN
authors.lastname: Ibrahem
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Department of Paediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq.
authors.forename: Hassan Jaber
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Hasony
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Department of Paediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq.
authors.forename: Jenan Ghulam
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Hassan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007493:Iraq; D008297:Male; D010322:Parvoviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016732:Parvovirus B19, Human; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology; D015995:Prevalence