RT Book, Section
A1 Schleiss, Mark R.
A2 Rudolph, Colin D.
A2 Rudolph, Abraham M.
A2 Lister, George E.
A2 First, Lewis R.
A2 Gershon, Anne A.
SR Print(0)
ID 7030117
T1 Chapter 313. Human Herpesvirus 8
T2 Rudolph's Pediatrics, 22e
YR 2011
FD 2011
PB The McGraw-Hill Companies
PP New York, NY
SN 978-0-07-149723-7
LK accesspediatrics.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=7030117
RD 2024/04/23
AB The  history  of  the  identification  of  human  herpesvirus  8  (HHV-8;  also  known  as  Kaposi  sarcoma  herpesvirus  [KSHV]  or  Kaposi  sarcoma  [KS]  virus)  was  unique  among  the  Herpesviridae  insofar  as  the  virus  was  initially  “discovered”  purely  on  a  molecular  biologic  basis  using  a  powerful  detection  technique.1  Working  with  tissue  from  HIV-  infected  individuals  with  KS,  Chang  and  colleagues  used  a  technique  referred  to  as  “representational  difference  analysis”  to  identify  disease-specific  DNA  sequences  in  KS  tissue.  On  DNA  sequence  analysis,  the  deduced  amino  acid  sequences  were  found  to  have  strong  homology  to  proteins  from  the  gamma  herpesvirus  subfamily,  the  subfamily  of  the  Herpesviridae  that  includes  Epstein-Barr  virus  (EBV).  This  observation  was  striking  in  view  of  the  known  ability  of  EBV  to  persist  in  lymphocytes,  immortalize  cells,  and  produce  human  malignancies  (Burkitt  lymphoma  and  nasopharyngeal  carcinoma).  Hence,  the  novel  gamma  herpesvirus,  HHV-8,  appeared  to  be  a  new  herpesvirus  associated  with  human  malignancy,  Kaposi  sarcoma.  Eventually  HHV-8  was  cultivated  in  tissue  culture,  proving  that  these  DNA  sequences  corresponded  to  a  morphologically  identifiable  viral  particle.2