Human herpesvirus 8 and Epstein Barr-Virus in a cutaneons B-cell lymphoma and a malignant cell line established from the blood of an AIDS patient

Human Herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) has been consistently associated with Primary E ffusion Lymphoma (PEL or body-cavity-based lymphoma) but not with other lym phomas, This paper reports on an AIDS patient without obvious malignant eff usion in body cavities but with a cutaneous lymphoma where HHV-8 and Epstei n-Barr virus (EBV) were detected by PCR and electron microscopy, Both virus es were also detected in all the cells of a malignant cell line (BBG1) esta blished from the patient's peripheral blood mononuclear cells. As in PEL an d PEL-derived cell lines, both the tumor and the Lines lacked B-antigen exp ression in immunological studies but were of the same B origin as shown by clonal immunoglobulin gene rearrangements. In contrast to other co-infected cell lines, BBG1 and subclones spontaneously expressed the HHV-8 lytic ant igens p40, p27, p60 and the EBV transforming latent antigen EBNA2. These da ta suggest that the clinical and biological features of HHV-8-and EBV-assoc iated lymphomas could be wider than has been described to date in PEL parti cularly with the in vivo presence of circulating malignant dually-infected cells engaged in a spontaneous HHV-8 lytic infection.