Lack of detection of human papillomavirus infection by hybridization test in prostatic biopsies

To explore the possibility of finding human papillomavirus [HPV] infection in the prostate tissue of a cohort of Saudi men presenting with benign prostatic hyperplasia [BPH] or prostate cancer. A cohort study on prospectively collected tissue samples was conducted at King Abdulaziz University Hospital [KAUH], Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from March 2007 to December 2008 on a total of 56 male patients, age range 50-93 years [average 68], diagnosed as having BPH or prostate cancer. The HPV DNA hybridization by hybrid capture 2 technology was performed on prostate biopsies of these patients to detect 18 types of HPV infection, and differentiate between 2 HPV DNA groups, the low-risk types, and the high/intermediate risk types. The tissues of all the prostatic biopsies were negative for HPV DNA. Our results, using the hybridization test, indicate that it is unlikely that HPV-16 or HPV-18, or the other tested subtypes, enhance the risk of prostate cancer

Cytomegalovirus infection among childre with blood malignancies

To correlate the virologic and serologic study results of cytomegalovirus [CMV] with the clinical syndromes among children with hematological malignancies seen at King Abdulaziz University Hospital [KAUH] in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. A total of 49 children were studied. The patients were 27 children suffering from different hematological malignancies. Twenty two children were admitted to the study as controls. Human foreskin fibroblast [HFF] cell culture was used for virus isolation. Immunofluorescence assay [IFA] using monoclonal antibodies [abs] to CMV was performed on all infected cultures. Antibodies [IgM and IgA] to CMV in the sera were detected by an enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay [ELISA] and a Latex Agglutination test [IgG]. All patients showed seropositivity for anti CMV-IgG. Eighteen patients [67%] with positive anti-CMV IgG showed no evidence of active infection or excretion of CMV. Nine patients [33%] showed seropositivity, 2 of them [22%] with exertion of CMV in the urine but with no evidence of active infection, and the other 7 [78%] patients developed active CMV infection presented by excretion of CMV from one or more body sites, elevated or non elevated serum anti-CMV IgG and with or without the presence of anti-CMV IgM. Out of these 9 patients 2 had evidence of primary infection and the remaining 7 patients had latent CMV reactivation episode. The presence of anti-CMV IgA had no relation neither to the excretion of CMV, nor to the elevated anti-CMV IgG and to positive anti-CMV IgM. There was no CMV active infection in the control subjects evidenced by the absence of excretion of CMV in the samples, and negative anti-CMV IgM in the serum despite the detection of anti-CMV IgG which indicated past exposure to CMV early in childhood