Comparative study between chronic immune thrombocytopenia patients and healthy population on Epstein–Barr virus infection status by polymerase chain reaction

ABSTRACT

Background

Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) has been known to be associated with assorted virus infections. This study aims to investigate the Epstein–Barr virus infection status in chronic ITP patients by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction.

Methods

42 chronic ITP patients and 42 healthy donors were retrospectively included via propensity score matching with gender and age. EBV-DNA levels in whole blood of patients and donors were assessed by RT-qPCR, and correlations between virus load and platelet count were analyzed.

Results

The positive rate of EBV-DNA in lymphocytes of chronic ITP patients was significantly higher than that in donors (52.4% vs 31.0%, p = 0.046). Platelet count [18(8–45)×10⁹/L] of patients with high virus load in lymphocytes was significantly lower than that [51(30–87)×10⁹/L] of patients with low virus load (p = 0.0001), whereas no difference was observed in platelet count between EBV-DNA-positive and negative subgroups of donors (p = 0.984). And a significant inverse correlation was observed between EBV-DNA levels in lymphocytes and platelet count (r = −0.4958, p = 0.019) in patients, which was independent from the presence of platelet-associated IgG.

Conclusions

EBV infection has a potential role in the development of chronic ITP. Identification and control of this underlying infection should be emphasized in the treatment of chronic ITP.

KEYWORDS:

• Chronic immune thrombocytopenia
• Epstein–Barr virus infection
• healthy donors
• platelet
• real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction

Author contributions

All authors contributed to the study design and conduction. Ying Zhang, Fan Yang, and Li Ji performed the deoxyribonucleic acid detection. Miao Yan, Mangju Wang, and Wensheng Wang collected the data, performed the statistical analyses, and wrote the paper. All authors reviewed and revised the manuscript.

Acknowledgments

The authors give their sincere gratitude to Prof. Kai Pang who has provided writing assistance.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by Peking University under Grant [BMU2018ME002].