Correlations Between Epstein-barr Virus And Acute Leukemia

Objective In order to explore the relationship between Epstein-Barr virus(EBV)infection and the onset of leukemia and chromosome aberrations,EBV copies were detected in different types of leukemia patients(including acute lymphoblastic leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia).Meanwhile,the study will may provide a reliable basis for revealing that EBV infection is closely related to the occurrence of certain types of leukemia.Methods Fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction(FQ-PCR)was used to detect EBV-DNA copy numbers from bone marrow in 185 cases of patients with acute leukemia(75 had acute myeloid leukemia and 110 had acute lymphoblastic leukemia)and37 heathy individuals served as normal controls.Here,“healthy”was defined as without any type of hematological disorders and other cancers.The extraction of bone marrow cells DNA using conventional phenol chloroform isoamyl alcohol method.Short-term culture method was used to prepare chromosome samples and karyotyping was performed in AL patients by R-banding.Immunophenotyping was carried out for further analyzing the correlation between EBV infection and the subtype of ALL.Some patients were followed up to investigate the effect of EBV infection on leukemia patients' relapse and death.The two independent samples nonparametric test(Mann-Whitney U-test)was applied for the comparison of quantitative data.Qualitative data was analyzed by Pearson?2 tests.The Log-rank test was employed to determine the association between EBV infection and ALL patients' survival.The Kaplan-Meier method was used to generate survival curves.Results EBV-DNA copies were found in 64 of 185(34.6%)patients with AL and 2 of 37 healthy control subjects(?2=12.6,p<0.001).The EBV infection rate of ALL patients,AML patients and healthy controls was 40.9%(45/110),25.3%(19/75)and 5.4%(2/37),respectively.The positive rate of EBV in the ALL and AML groups was higher than in healthy subjects(?2=16.1,6.5;p<0.05).EBV-DNA copies were found in 1 of 12(8.3%)T-ALLs and 44 of 98(44.9%)B-ALLs,the positive rate of EBV in B-ALLs increased significantly compared to the rate of T-ALLs(?2=4.5,p<0.05).Chromosome karyotype analysis showed that EBV infection rates in B-ALL,T-ALL and AML patients with chromosome abnormalities were 46.3%(25/54),33.3%(1/3)and 30%(9/30),respectively.There was no statistical significance between chromosome abnormality and EBV infection(?2=2.3,p>0.05).Clinical follow-up in ALL patients showed that relapse rate in EBV infection group and non EBV infection group was 56.5%(13/23),21.4%(6/28),and ALL-associated deaths rate was 47.8%(11/23),10.7%(3/28).The EBV+group had higher relapse and ALL-associated deaths rates than the non-EBV infection group(?2=6.7,8.7;p<0.05).EBV-DNA copy numbers in EBV+-ALL group were higher than that in ALL patients without EBV infection(Z=?2.3,p<0.05).Conclusion EBV infection may be associated with the occurrence,development and immunophenotyping of acute leukemia.The EBV infection subjects had higher ALL-associated deaths and relapse rate in ALL patients.Those indicate that the clinical application of EBV-DNA copies could be used to monitor disease progression of EBV+-ALL patients.