PREVALENCE OF HUMAN HERPESVIRUS-8 DNA-SEQUENCES IN SEVERAL PATIENT POPULATIONS

We have undertaken a large-scale study of various tissues from normal controls and patients with Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) or other malignancies , both with and without human immunodeficiency virus infection, to det ermine the prevalence of human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) DNA. A total of 5 66 specimens were analyzed by PCR for the presence of HHV-8 DNA, Of th e samples tested, 251 were obtained from patients with KS and 315 were obtained from patients without KS. HHV-8 DNA was detected in 103 (41% ) of the 251 samples from patients with KS. In particular, 92% of KS t umor specimens were positive, None of the tissues from patients withou t KS showed evidence of HHV-8 DNA. Sequencing and phylogenetic analyse s indicate a high degree of conservation (97.5 to 100%) among the HHV- 8 strains tested.