BACKGROUND: The pathogenic factors of Behçet's disease (BD) differentiate according to geographical zones. The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible relation between this process and infection by type I herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) in Spain. METHODS: The prevalence of antibodies vs HSV-1 and cytomegalovirus (CMV) was studied by complement fixation in three series: A) 34 patients with BD; B) 21 with primary uveitis; C) 40 controls. HSV-1 specificity was established by ELISA. HLA typing was performed in 32 individuals from series A. RESULTS: The frequency of anti HSV-1 in A (76%) was greater (p = 0.045) than in C (55%) and B (66%). These differences were more evident when titers equal/superior to 1/64 were considered as positive, with this being a value exceeding the 97.5% percentage of the control series (A = 21%, C = 2%, p = 0.015), specially for the ocular BD subgroup (26%, p = 0.011 with respect to C). The B series did not differ from C (p = 0.88). To the contrary no differences were observed in the distribution of titers vs CMV. Although a greater frequency of anti HSV-1 was observed in HLA-B51+ the differences were not significant (p = 0.09). CONCLUSIONS: The frequency of evaluable titers of anti-HSV-1 is greater in patients with BD (specially with ocular involvement) than in the control series. No association was found between higher titers and HLA PB51+ phenotype.
BACKGROUND: The pathogenic factors of Behçet's disease (BD) differentiate according to geographical zones. The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible relation between this process and infection by type I herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) in Spain. METHODS: The prevalence of antibodies vs HSV-1 and cytomegalovirus (CMV) was studied by complement fixation in three series: A) 34 patients with BD; B) 21 with primary uveitis; C) 40 controls. HSV-1 specificity was established by ELISA. HLA typing was performed in 32 individuals from series A. RESULTS: The frequency of anti HSV-1 in A (76%) was greater (p = 0.045) than in C (55%) and B (66%). These differences were more evident when titers equal/superior to 1/64 were considered as positive, with this being a value exceeding the 97.5% percentage of the control series (A = 21%, C = 2%, p = 0.015), specially for the ocular BD subgroup (26%, p = 0.011 with respect to C). The B series did not differ from C (p = 0.88). To the contrary no differences were observed in the distribution of titers vs CMV. Although a greater frequency of anti HSV-1 was observed in HLA-B51+ the differences were not significant (p = 0.09). CONCLUSIONS: The frequency of evaluable titers of anti-HSV-1 is greater in patients with BD (specially with ocular involvement) than in the control series. No association was found between higher titers and HLA PB51+ phenotype.
Authors: Marion C Lanteri; Zhanna Kaidarova; Trevor Peterson; Steven Cate; Brian Custer; Shiquan Wu; Maria Agapova; Jacqueline P Law; Thomas Bielawny; Frank Plummer; Leslie H Tobler; Mark Loeb; Michael P Busch; Jonathan Bramson; Ma Luo; Philip J Norris Journal: PLoS One Date: 2011-08-01 Impact factor: 3.240