ABUNDANCE OF HUMAN BETAHERPESVIRUSES IN SALIVARY GLAND LESIONS

Salivary gland tumours cause lesions with undefined aetiology. Human betaherpesviruses, such as Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), human betaherpesvirus 6 (HHV-6), and Human betaherpesvirus 7 (HHV-7), may act as co-factors leading to the development of salivary gland neoplasms. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of human betaherpesviruses (HCMV, HHV-6, and HHV-7) in salivary gland lesion samples.Samples from 68 patients with salivary gland lesions were tested (35 samples of mucocele, 27 of pleomorphic adenoma, and six of mucoepidermoid carcinoma). Following DNA extraction, multiplex quantitative polymerase chain reaction was used for quantification. Among the 68 samples, 51.4 % were mucocele; 39.7 %, pleomorphic adenomas; and 8.8 %, mucoepidermoid carcinomas. The abundance of betaherpesviruses in these lesions was high, presenting a detection rate of 52.9 %, 47.5%, and 39.7% for HCMV, HHV-6, and HHV-7, respectively. Overall, 60.0 % samples presented triple-infections with HCMV/HHV-6/HHV-7, 12.0 % were co-infections with HCMV/HHV-6 and HCMV/HHV-7, and 6.0 % were co-infections with HHV-6/HHV-7; maximum number of co-infections were detected in pleomorphic adenomas.HCMV, HHV-6, and HHV-7 are abundant in salivary gland lesions. High viral load can be useful for understanding their etiological role in such lesions.