Human Herpesvirus 8, Susceptibility To
Description
Human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8) is the etiologic agent of Kaposi sarcoma, primary effusion lymphoma, and some forms of multicentric Castleman disease (Pedergnana et al., 2012). See 148000 for general phenotypic information on these diseases, as well as information on HHV-8-associated pathogenesis.
MappingUsing an immunofluorescence assay, Pedergnana et al. (2012) determined that HHV-8 seroprevalence was 60% and increased with age among 608 individuals, aged 1 to 88 years, belonging to the Bantu ethnic group, primarily the Fang tribe, in southern Cameroon, where HHV-8 infection is endemic. Segregation analysis provided evidence for a recessive major gene conferring predisposition to HHV-8 infection, with almost all homozygous predisposed individuals (about 7% of the population) becoming infected by 10 years of age. Linkage analysis on the 15 most informative families, corresponding to 205 genotyped individuals, identified a single region on chromosome 3p22 that was significantly linked to HHV-8 infection (lod = 3.83; P = 2.0 x 10(-5)).