The seroprevalence and salivary shedding of herpesviruses in Behçet's syndrome and recurrent aphthous stomatitis

Objective : To investigate the seroprevalence and salivary shedding of herpesviruses in BS. Method : The levels of specific immunoglobulin G in six different herpesviruses in serum samples collected from 54 BS, 28 healthy controls (HC), and 7 recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) patients were investigated. Salivary viral load was also quantified for these viruses in matched saliva samples using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results : The BS had lower cytomegalovirus (CMV) IgG level in comparison to HC ( p= 0.0226) and RAS ( p= 0.0450). There was statistically significant higher salivary shedding of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in BS in comparison to HC ( p= 0.0052), but not RAS ( p= 0.3318). Conclusions : A high EBV shedding was observed in both BS and RAS and a lower level of CMV IgG was observed in BS only. The reason for the observed lower level of CMV IgG in BS is not clear. However, one explanation might be a defect in the cross-talk between innate and adaptive immune responses which was suggested by a previously described defect in the toll-like receptor 1 and 2 heterodimer formation and function, this being the initial receptor sensing of CMV. Keywords : Behcet's syndrome; herpes; oral mucosa; saliva (Published: 5 June 2015) Citation: Journal of Oral Microbiology 2015, 7: 27156 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/jom.v7.27156