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Respective Roles of Serological Status and Blood Specific Antihuman Herpesvirus 8 Antibody Levels in Human Herpesvirus 8 Intrafamilial Transmission in a Highly Endemic Area

¹ Laboratoire de Génétique Humaine des Maladies Infectieuses, Université René Descartes, INSERM U.550, Faculté de Médecine Necker, and ² Laboratoire de Génétique Epidémiologique et Moléculaire des Pathologies Cardiovasculaires, INSERM U.525, Faculté de Médecine Pitié Salpétrière, Paris, France; ³ Unité d’Epidémiologie et Physiopathologie des Virus Oncogènes, Département Ecosystèmes et Epidémiologie des Maladies Infectieuses, Institut Pasteur, Paris Cedex 15, France; and ⁴ Laboratoire ERMES, IRD, Technoparc, Orléans Cedex 2, France

Transmission of human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8), the etiological agent of Kaposi’s sarcoma, occurs mainly during childhood in endemic countries and, to a large extent, through intrafamilial contacts. To additionally investigate this familial transmission, and especially the role of plasma anti-HHV–8 antibody titers, we conducted a large survey in a village from Cameroon, Central Africa, including 92 families (608 individuals). Plasma samples were tested for specific IgG directed against HHV-8 lytic antigens by immunofluorescence assay, and titers were determined by 2-fold dilutions. Global HHV-8 seroprevalence was 60%, raising from 32% under 9 years up to a plateau of around 62% between 15 and 40 years. The familial correlation patterns in HHV-8 seropositive/seronegative status showed strong dependence from mother to child and between siblings. In contrast, no familial correlation in anti-HHV–8 antibody levels was observed among infected subjects. In particular, no relationship was observed between the anti-HHV–8 antibody titer of HHV-8 seropositive mothers and the proportion of their HHV-8 seropositive children. Furthermore, a random permutation study of the anti-HHV–8 antibody titers among HHV-8 infected subjects showed that the main risk factor for infection was the HHV-8 serologic status and not the antibody level. In addition, no correlation was found between anti-HHV–8 antibody levels and buffy coat HHV-8 viral loads in a subsample of 95 infected subjects. Overall, these results strongly suggest that, in this highly endemic population from Central Africa, HHV-8 transmission mainly occurs from mother to child and between siblings, and it is independent of plasma antibody levels of HHV-8 infected relatives.

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