Direct Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) typing on peripheral blood mononuclear cells: No association between EBV type 2 infection or superinfection and the development of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome-related non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

In the literature, a correlation has been suggested between the occurrence of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-related non-Hodgkin's lymphoma s (NHL) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) type 2 infection. To further investiga te a possible role for EBV type 2 infection in the development of AIDS-NHL, we developed a sensitive and type-specific nested polymerase chain reactio n (PCR) assay and analyzed EBV types directly on peripheral blood mononucle ar cells (PBMC) in three subgroups of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 infected individuals: 30 AIDS-NHL patients, 42 individuals progressing to A IDS without lymphoma (PROG), either developing opportunistic infections (AI DS-OI) or Kaposi's sarcoma (AIDS-KS), and 18 long-term asymptomatic individ uals (LTA), Furthermore, EBV type analysis was performed on PBMC samples ob tained from AIDS-NHL patients in the course of HIV-1 infection. The results showed that: (1) direct analysis of PBMC is superior to analysis of B-lymp hoblastoid cell lines (B-LCL) grown from the same PBMC samples; (2) in HIV- 1 infected individuals, there is a high prevalence of EBV type 2 infection (50% in LTA, 62% in progressors, and 53% in AIDS-NHL) and superinfection wi th both type 1 and 2 (24% in LTA, 40% in progressors, and 47% in AIDS-NHL); (3) EBV type 2 (super)infection is not associated with an increased risk f or development of AIDS-NHL; (4) type 2 infection can be found early in HIV- 1 infection, and neither type 2 infection nor superinfection correlates wit h a failing immune system. (C) 1999 by The American Society of Hematology.