Abstract |
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is the main type of leukemia in children. An infectious etiology has been suspected and the role of the Human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6) has been suggested. Several studies have tried to establish a link between HHV-6 infections and hematological malignancies, with discordant results. The potential role of HHV-6 in the pathogenesis of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia was investigated. HHV-6 genome copy number was measured by quantitative real-time PCR (RQ-PCR) in bone marrow or peripheral blood samples obtained from 36 children (median age = 4 years) with B acute lymphoblastic leukemia (n = 31) and T acute lymphoblastic leukemia (n = 5) at diagnosis and during complete remission. Positive samples were further characterized to define viral variant, A or B. A total of 24.7% of samples were positive for HHV-6 genome: 13.9% were leukemia samples and 34.1% were complete remission samples. Viral load was low with values lower at diagnosis (median viral copy number = 22.9) than at complete remission (median copy number = 60.1). Among the 17 patients with positive samples, 15 were typed as B-variant whereas 2 could not be typed. These results argue against a role of HHV6 infection in the development of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia. They also suggest that HHV-6 may infect latently bone marrow progenitors but seems not able to infect leukemic cells, raising again the question of the mechanism of virus fusion and entry. This observation shows that a reactivation may be observed during complete remission supporting the possibility of virus reactivation in immunocompromised hosts.
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Authors | Elisa Seror, Bérénice Coquerel, Agnès Gautheret-Dejean, Paola Ballerini, Judith Landman-Parker, Guy Leverger, Pascale Schneider, Jean-Pierre Vannier |
Journal | Journal of medical virology
(J Med Virol)
Vol. 80
Issue 4
Pg. 689-93
(Apr 2008)
ISSN: 0146-6615 [Print] United States |
PMID | 18297709
(Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
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Chemical References |
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Topics |
- Adolescent
- Blood
(virology)
- Bone Marrow
(virology)
- Child
- Child, Preschool
- DNA, Viral
(analysis)
- Female
- Herpesvirus 6, Human
(genetics)
- Humans
- Infant
- Male
- Polymerase Chain Reaction
(methods)
- Precursor B-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma
(virology)
- Precursor T-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma
(virology)
- Roseolovirus Infections
(complications, virology)
- Viral Load
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