Epstein-Barr virus: general factors, virus-related diseases and measurement of viral load after transplant

• Autor(a) principal: Gequelin,Luciana Cristina Fagundes
• Data de Publicação: 2011
• Outros Autores: Riediger,Irina N, Nakatani,Sueli M, Biondo,Alexander W, Bonfim,Carmem M
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista brasileira de hematologia e hemoterapia (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-84842011000500016
• topic: Herpesvirus 4, human; Polymerase chain reaction; Lymphoproliferative disorders; Transplantation

The Epstein-Barr virus is responsible for infectious mononucleosis syndrome and is also closely associated to several types of cancer. The main complication involving Epstein-Barr virus infection, both in recipients of hematopoietic stem cells and solid organs, is post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease. The importance of this disease has increased interest in the development of laboratory tools to improve post-transplant monitoring and to detect the disease before clinical evolution. Viral load analysis for Epstein-Barr virus through real-time polymerase chain reaction is, at present, the best tool to measure viral load. However, there is not a consensus on which sample type is the best for the test and what is its predictive value for therapeutic interventions.