Low incidence of human herpesvirus 8 in stem cell collections from myelomapatients

Human herpesvirus 8 is a gammaherpesvirus which may be implicated in the pa thogenesis of multiple myeloma, Viral DNA sequences have been found in the bone marrow, peripheral blood and leukapheresis products of myeloma patient s. These findings have significant implications for the use of leukapherese d cells in the transplantation and immunotherapy of myeloma, The studies su ggest the cell which harbours the virus may be dendritic in origin. We have previously reported that dendritic cells cultured for use in the clinical setting do not harbour HHV-8, In this study, we examined the leukapheresis products of a larger cohort of myeloma patients for the presence of HHV-8 u sing a highly sensitive PCR technique. A strong association between HHV-8 a nd myeloma was not confirmed, with only 4% of the patient samples positive for viral sequences. While further study is needed, the current use of aphe resis cells and their cultured progeny in the treatment of myeloma should n ot be compromised.