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Updated: Aug 7, 2026
An Efficient and Simple Method to Establish NK and T Cell Lines from Patients with Chronic Active Epstein-Barr Virus Infection
Published on: March 30, 2018
A longitudinal and prospective study of Epstein-Barr virus load in AIDS-related non-Hodgkin lymphoma
Fabrice Bonnet1, Anne-Christine Jouvencel, Marie Parrens
1Service de Médecine Interne et Maladies Infectieuses, Hôpital Saint-André, 1 rue Jean Burguet, 33075 Bordeaux Cedex, France.
Background:
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) may be causally associated with non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL) in HIV-infected patients.
Objectives:
To compare EBV load in whole blood in AIDS-NHL patients, HIV non-AIDS patients and non-HIV-infected persons, and to prospectively measure EBV load in whole blood in AIDS-NHL patients.
Study Design:
Longitudinal and prospective study.
Results:
We observed no statistical difference in EBV load between AIDS-NHL (3.69log(10) copies/mL [interquartile range (IQR): 2.89-4.27]) and HIV non-AIDS patients (3.08log(10) copies/mL [IQR: 1.29-3.57]) but AIDS-NHL patients had significantly higher EBV loads than HIV-negative controls (1.19log(10) copies/mL [IQR: 0.00-3.29]). We noticed an inverse correlation between CD4+ lymphocytes count and EBV load in patients with AIDS-NHL (r(2)=0.41, P=0.01). In the longitudinal study, the mean EBV load three months after NHL diagnosis decreased significantly (mean difference=-1.69log(10) copies/mL [95% confidence interval: -0.32; -3.04]; P=0.03) under chemotherapy but was still elevated in patients with relapses or no response to chemotherapy.
Conclusion:
Although EBV load seems a suboptimal marker for the diagnosis of AIDS-NHL, we observed a significant decrease of EBV load in patients treated with chemotherapy and a strong association between NHL outcome and EBV load in whole blood.
