Detection of the Predominant Strain of Epstein-Barr Virus in Systemic Autoimmune and Thalassemia Patients

Basima A Abdullah,Alaa Y Al-Hamadany

doi:10.33899/rjs.2014.88563

Abstract

EBV, is a member of the herpesvirus family and one of the most common human viruses, Epidemiological data suggest that EBV is associated with polytransfused blood βthalassemia and several autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. We examined the presence of IgM antibodies against EBV in serum of 35 Thalassemic patients, 75 autoimmune patients among as 35 rheumatoid arthritis patients, 20 Systemic lupus erythrematosus and 20 autoimmune hypothyroid diseases, and 20 healthy controls by ELISA assay then detected the predominant strain in positive samples. The results show that the highest EBV infection percent was in SLE 15% whilst the lowest infection percent was in Thalassemia 5.7%., and according to gender, the results showed that the highest infection percentage recorded in females with rheumatoid arthritis 30 %, whilst the infection does not appear in males with rheumatoid arthritis and autoimmune thyroid disease and females of thalassemia patients. On the other hand, this study reveals that EBV-1 is the predominant strain in autoimmune diseases and thalassemia in Iraq.

Highlights

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a ubiquitous double stranded DNA virus from human herpes virus family, which has B-lymphotropism
According to ELISA technique, the results revealed that 10 of the patients have seropositive of EBV (Table 2) and the highest EBV infection percent was in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) 15% followed by ATD 10% and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) 8.6% while the lowest infection percent was in Thalassemia 5.7% as (Table 3)
In the 1970s, IARC demonstrated that more than 90% of adults worldwide are infected with EBV, based on the detection of antibodies to EBV especially antibodies to viral capsid (VCA) and complement-fixing soluble (CF/S) antigens (IARC, 1997)

Summary

Introduction

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a ubiquitous double stranded DNA virus from human herpes virus family, which has B-lymphotropism. More than 90% of adults in the world have serologic evidence of infection with this virus It is acquired during early childhood and the age of infection is much lower in undeveloped countries with low socioeconomic condition (Rickinson and Kieff, 2001). A typical EBV virion consists of a linear doublestrand DNA genome packaged into an icosahedral capsid, which is surrounded by a proteinaceous structure called the tegument, and an envelope composed of several viral glycoproteins embedded in a lipid bilayer (Morissette and Flamand, 2010). It is replicated during each cell division by the host DNA polymerase together with the host chromosomes. The EBV genome encodes over 85 open reading frames ORFs (Kieff and Liebowitz, 2001)

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