Circulating Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in HIV-infected patients and its relation with primary brain lymphoma

Objective: To analyze Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) load at different HIV infection stages and its relation with brain lymphoma. Design: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 172 HIV-infected individuals: 62 asymptomatic HIV carriers (group A), 30 HIV progressors (group B), 73 AIDS patients (group C), seven AIDS patients with brain lymphoma (group C-BL); and 26 blood donors (group BD) as healthy carriers. EBV toad was measured in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and plasma samples using a semi-quantitative PCR method. Results: PBMC-EBV levels in HIV-infected patients were higher than in the blood donors (p < 0.05). No differences in PBMC-EBV loads were found in groups A, B, or C (p > 0.05), white the C-BL group had significantly lower levels (p < 0.05). Similar PBMC-EBV toads were seen in HIV-infected patients with CD4+ T cell counts higher than 50/mm(3) (p > 0.05), while significantly lower levels were found in cases with less than 50 cells/mm(3) (p < 0.05). In all HIV-infected patients, plasma-EBV load was lower than, or similar to, PBMC-EBV load, unlike 2/7 HIV-positive brain lymphoma patients. Conclusions: During HIV infection PBMC-EBV load rises in comparison to healthy carriers, but decreases when immunosuppression progresses and CD4+ T cell count becomes < 50/mm(3).