Absence of human cytomegalovirus infection in childhood brain tumors

Abstract

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a common human pathogen which induces different clinical manifestations related to the age and the immune conditions of the host. HCMV infection seems to be involved in the pathogenesis of adult glioblastomas. The aim of our study was to detect the presence of HCMV in high grade gliomas and other pediatric brain tumors. This hypothesis might have important therapeutic implications, offering a new target for adjuvant therapies. Among 106 pediatric patients affected by CNS tumors we selected 27 patients with a positive HCMV serology. The serological analysis revealed 7 patients with positive HCMV IGG (≥14 U/mL), whom had also a high HCMV IgG avidity, suggesting a more than 6 months-dated infection. Furthermore, HCMV IGM were positive (≥22 U/mL) in 20 patients. Molecular and immunohistochemical analyses were performed in all the 27 samples. Despite a positive HCMV serology, confirmed by ELISA, no viral DNA was shown at the PCR analysis in the patients' neoplastic cells. At immunohistochemistry, no expression of HCMV antigens was observed in tumoral cells. Our results are in agreement with recent results in adults which did not evidence the presence of HCMV genome in glioblastoma lesions. We did not find any correlation between HCMV infection and pediatric CNS tumors.

Keywords: CNS tumors; Human cytomegalovirus; brain tumors; pediatric neuro-oncology; viral infection.

Figure 1

Immunohistochemical detection of HCMV gave negative results in brain tumors (A and B: Standard method; D, E: Optimized method; A and D: Same case; B and E: Same case) whereas revealed the characteristic inclusion bodies in the positive control (C: Standard method; F: Optimized method). Original magnification (A-F) 20×.