Tesse Riccardina, Santoro Nicola, Giordano Paola, Cardinale Fabio, De Mattia Domenico, Armenio Lucio
Department of Biomedicina dell'Eta' Evolutiva, Pediatric Unit S. Maggiore, University of Bari, Bari, Italy.
Pediatr Hematol Oncol. 2009 Nov;26(8):573-82. doi: 10.3109/08880010903271705.
Recent studies investigated the role of an unusual immune response to infective agents in the etiology of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in children. Human beta-defensin-1 (hBD-1) is an anti-microbial peptide of the innate immune system, which exerts a killing role against pathogens. In the present study, three polymorphisms have been genotyped, namely, -52G/A, -44C/G and -20G/A, of DEFB1 gene, coding for hBD-1, in 40 ALL patients and 40 healthy children, and tested for an association between genetic variants of the protein and seroprevalence of antibodies for herpes viruses. The seroprevalence of cytomegalovirus (CMV), herpes simplex viruses (HSV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) IgG antibodies in leukemic children was higher than that in controls (CMV: 61.5 vs. 27.3%, p = .008; HSV: 50 vs. 24.2%, p = .04; EBV: 61.3 vs. 46.2%, p = ns, respectively). Carriers of the GCA haplotype were found to have a significantly higher rate of immunization against CMV and HSV in ALL children compared to controls (CMV: 68 vs. 29%, p = .006; HSV: 56 vs. 26%, p = .04, respectively). No such observation was made when we analyzed the immunization against Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) by GCA haplotype in case and controls (58 vs. 40%, p = ns). These findings suggest that leukemic patients carrying untranslated variants of hBD-1 display a higher susceptibility to herpes viruses infections than controls.
最近的研究调查了对感染因子的异常免疫反应在儿童急性淋巴细胞白血病（ALL）病因学中的作用。人β-防御素-1（hBD-1）是先天性免疫系统的一种抗菌肽，对病原体发挥杀伤作用。在本研究中，对40例ALL患者和40名健康儿童进行了编码hBD-1的DEFB1基因的三种多态性基因分型，即-52G/A、-44C/G和-20G/A，并检测了该蛋白的基因变异与疱疹病毒抗体血清阳性率之间的关联。白血病儿童中巨细胞病毒（CMV）、单纯疱疹病毒（HSV）和EB病毒（EBV）IgG抗体的血清阳性率高于对照组（CMV：61.5%对27.3%，p = 0.008；HSV：50%对24.2%，p = 0.04；EBV：61.3%对46.2%，p =无统计学意义）。与对照组相比，ALL儿童中GCA单倍型携带者对CMV和HSV的免疫率显著更高（CMV：68%对29%，p = 0.006；HSV：56%对26%，p = 0.04）。当我们按病例和对照组的GCA单倍型分析对EB病毒（EBV）的免疫情况时，未观察到此类现象（58%对40%，p =无统计学意义）。这些发现表明，携带hBD-1非翻译变异的白血病患者比对照组对疱疹病毒感染更易感。
