Comparison of the frequency of HHV-8 virus in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and healthy population

Abstract

Introduction: Lupus is a chronic systemic disorder with a complex etiology, and viral infections have contributed to its development and progression. Human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8) has been diagnosed in many patients with autoimmune disorders; however, its role in lupus has not been well investigated. The present study aimed to compare the frequency and viral load of HHV-8 in patients with lupus and healthy population. Material & Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 70 patients with lupus and 70 healthy individuals who were matched for gender and age were included. After the extraction of viral DNA, the HHV-8 viral load was measured using the Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique, and the results were analyzed by SPSS software. Results: Patients with lupus consisted of 59 females (84.3%) and 11 males (15.7%) with a mean age of 31.1±8.4 years, and the control group consisted of 58 females (82.9%) and 12 males (17.1%) with a mean age of 33.5±11.2 years, none of them were positive for HHV-8 genome. Discussion & Conclusion: To date, there is no report in this field from Iran, and this study is the first survey. Regarding the high accuracy of the Real-time PCR technique and lack of HHV-8 genome in the blood samples of Iranian patients with lupus, it seems that none of the individuals, even in the case of viral infection, were infected with the active form of HHV-8, which is compatible with the previous studies.

Keywords

• hhv-8
• lupus
• real-time pcr
• viral load