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  • Title: Human serum antibodies to a major defined epitope of human herpesvirus 8 small viral capsid antigen.
    Author: Tedeschi R, De Paoli P, Schulz TF, Dillner J.
    Journal: J Infect Dis; 1999 Apr; 179(4):1016-20. PubMed ID: 10068601.
    Abstract:
    The major antibody-reactive epitope of the small viral capsid antigen (sVCA) of human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) was defined by use of overlapping peptides. Strong IgG reactivity was found among approximately 50% of 44 human immunodeficiency virus-positive or -negative patients with Kaposi's sarcoma and 13 subjects who were seropositive by immunofluorescence assay (IFA) for the latent HHV-8 nuclear antigen. Only 1 of 106 subjects seronegative for both lytic and latent HHV-8 antigens and 10 of 81 subjects IFA-seropositive only for the lytic HHV-8 antigen had strong IgG reactivity to this epitope. Among 534 healthy Swedish women, only 1.3% were strongly seropositive. Comparison of the peptide-based and purified sVCA protein-based ELISAs found 55% sensitivity and 98% specificity. However, only 1 of 452 serum samples from healthy women was positive in both tests. In conclusion, the defined sVCA epitope was a specific, but not very sensitive, serologic marker of active HHV-8 infection. Such infection appears to be rare among Swedish women, even with sexual risk-taking behavior.
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