Biomedical subjects

Elisa Martró

Publications and source records attributed to Elisa Martró.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2007

Risk factors for human Herpesvirus 8 infection and AIDS-associated Kaposi's sarcoma among men who have sex with men in a European multicentre study.

We aimed to identify risk factors for Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) among HIV-positive patients and behaviors associated with human Herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) infection, as well as to assess KS incidence and mortality rates longitudinally. To fulfill the first objective, a European case-control study was designed in the early 1990s (each KS case was matched to 2 controls with another AIDS indicative disease). After the discovery of HHV-8, serology testing enabled us to assess risk factors for KS development among HHV-8 and HIV-1 coinfected men who have sex with men (MSM), as well as risk factors for HHV-8 infection. HHV-8 seroprevalence was determined using a latent immunofluorescence assay. Relevant information was obtained by means of a questionnaire and medical charts review. Assessment of risk factors for KS development and HHV-8 infection was performed using conditional and unconditional logistic regression models, respectively. A low CD4 count was the only significant risk factor for KS. HHV-8 infection was most strongly linked to the number of life-time sex partners, and multiple body fluids such as saliva and semen are quite likely involved in sexual transmission. Longitudinal follow up showed a significant protective role for highly-active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) both on KS development and mortality of KS patients. Although more conclusive data from cohort studies are needed to better define specific transmission mechanisms for HHV-8, our results contribute to explain why KS incidence is higher among MSM, and the decreasing KS incidence trend observed in countries with universal access to HAART.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

PubMed2005

Comparison of the avidity index method and the serologic testing algorithm for recent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seroconversion, two methods using a single serum sample for identification of recent HIV infections.

A study was designed to compare an avidity index method to the serologic testing algorithm for recent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seroconversion (STARHS) for the detection of recent HIV infection. One hundred sixty HIV-positive sera were tested. Both techniques performed similarly in identifying recent infections, although STARHS tended to misclassify more individuals that had long-standing infection as being recently infected.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2004

Evidence for both lytic replication and tightly regulated human herpesvirus 8 latency in circulating mononuclear cells, with virus loads frequently below common thresholds of detection.

To address whether human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) DNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) might be the product of latent or lytic infection and to shed light on sporadic detection of HHV-8 DNA in individuals seropositive for the virus, we studied the frequency of infected cells, total virus load, and virus load per infected cell in PBMCs from men coinfected with HHV-8 and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), some of whom had Kaposi's sarcoma. The low frequencies of infected cells detected (fewer than one per million cells in some individuals) suggest that the prevalence of the virus in circulating leukocytes was underestimated in previous studies that employed more conventional sampling methods (single, small-volume specimens). Mean virus loads ranged from 3 to 330 copies per infected PBMC; these numbers can represent much higher loads in individual lytically infected cells (>10(3) genomes/cell) in mixtures that consist predominantly of latently (relatively few genomes) infected cells. The presence in some subjects of high HHV-8 mean genome copy numbers per infected cell, together with viral DNA being found in plasma only from subjects with positive PBMCs, supports earlier suggestions that the virus can actively replicate in PBMCs. In some individuals, mean virus loads were less than 10 genomes per infected cell, suggesting a tightly controlled purely latent state. HHV-8 genome copy numbers are substantially higher in latently infected cells derived from primary effusion lymphomas; thus, it appears that HHV-8 is able to adopt more than one latency program, perhaps analogous to the several types of Epstein-Barr virus latency.

DNA, Viral↗