Human herpesvirus 8 DNA detection and variant analysis in patients with multiple sclerosis

Several studies reported a complex interplay between viral infections and neural cells leading to multiple sclerosis. A role for some viral infections has been proposed in MS. In this study, DNA sequences of human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) were searched in the peripheral blood of 54 patients with multiple sclerosis and 130 healthy subjects using nested-PCR assay to amplify ORF26 locus. Furthermore, HHV-8 positive samples were subjected to a nested-PCR to amplify K1 gene of HHV-8 followed by direct nucleotide sequencing. HHV-8 genome was detected in 18.5% (10/54) and 3% (4/130) of MS patients and controls, respectively, and the difference reached statistically significant level (P = 0.0017). Genotyping analysis revealed that genotype C was common (88.9%) in all study subjects, followed by genotype A. Our results showed higher detection of HHV-8 DNA in MS patients than control group.