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Query: UMLS:C0024530 (malaria)
 44,886 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The recognition of Burkitt lymphoma (BL) as a clinical syndrome and a pathological entity in African children resulted from astute clinical observations (bedside epidemiology), the availability of cancer registry data and accurate pathological interpretation. Following the early studies in Africa, it soon became evident that this tumor occurred worldwide and the excess of cases in Africa was an incidence phenomenon associated with specific environmental factors. The sentinel discovery of the Epstein Barr virus (EBV) and its association with BL stimulated a wide variety of scientific investigations which have had an impact of virtually every discipline and biology. Epidemiological observations linked to modern laboratory techniques have provided etiological insights which implicate specific environmental factors and genetic events in the pathogenesis of BL and other immunoproliferative diseases. Early infection with EBV and holoendemic malaria are clearly of paramount importance in the development of endemic BL (eBL). These factors do not play a role in the majority of sporadic BL (sBL) cases, but immunosuppression and T-cell deregulation almost certainly are common denominators. The final or principle genetic event in both instances would appear to be the chromosome 8 translocation involving the c-myc oncogene and structural alteration. It is expected that the BL model will continue to be a useful one for identifying basic mechanisms in carcinogenesis which may be applicable as well to a variety of non-neoplastic diseases.
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PMID:Malignant lymphoma in African children: three decades of discovery. 285 87

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), although not an indispensable factor for the development of Burkitt lymphoma, is apparently associated with the 20-fold higher incidence of the disease in Equatorial Africa compared to the incidence in other parts of the world. To determine whether different EBV subtypes are associated with the appearance of the malignant phenotype, we have compared the EBV genomes carried in the Burkitt tumor cells with those carried in the nonmalignant lymphoblastoid cells from the same individuals. From three patients with EBV -associated Burkitt lymphoma, tumor cell lines as well as spontaneously established lymphoblastoid cell lines representing the nonmalignant counterparts were obtained. The viral DNA in these cell lines was analyzed by Southern blot hybridization, using a set of cloned EBV DNA fragments as probes that recognize polymorphic regions in the viral genome. Using a number of different polymorphic markers to distinguish one isolate from another, the virus genome found in the tumor cells could also be identified in the nonmalignant cells of the same patient. In one case, in which two independent lymphoblastoid cell lines were established, evidence was obtained that this patient was infected by at least two distinct EBV subtypes. These results strongly suggest that in Burkitt lymphoma, the risk associated with EBV is related to cofactors such as chronic malaria and the mode of infection rather than to peculiar viral subtypes. The situation seems to be totally different from papillomavirus-associated diseases, in which the risk of progression to malignancy appears to be associated with particular viral strains.
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PMID:No evidence for differences in the Epstein-Barr virus genome carried in Burkitt lymphoma cells and nonmalignant lymphoblastoid cells from the same patients. 608 53

In one area of the northern savanna of Nigeria the proportional frequency of the Burkitt lymphoma in childhood cancers was 39 percent. The age, sex and clinical expression of the tumour were similar to the well described pattern in Ibadan in the southern forest belt. The BL can therefore be regarded as "endemic" in this area, although its frequency is probably less than that recorded in the south. The possibility of a differing epidemiological pattern of P. falciparum malaria being responsible for this finding is discussed.
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PMID:The Burkitt lymphoma in the northern savanna of Nigeria. 746 82

From the survey that first identified cancer effects of foetal irradiation and related sources has come support for the following hypotheses: (1) competing causes of death for childhood cancers include abortions (solid tumours) and infections (RES neoplasms); (2) the forms taken by RES neoplasms vary with the nature and intensity of indigenous infections; (3) ideal conditions for developing diffuse RES neoplasms (leukaemia) include the gross immunological incompetence caused by trisomy 21; (4) the unusually localised RES neoplasms found in children who have survived repeated attacks of malaria (Burkitt lymphoma and chloroma) are probably the result of these children having exceptionally high levels of passive as well as active immunity; and (5) when teratogenic effects of in utero mutations include faulty erythropoiesis as well as faulty leucopoiesis, infections are not the only rival causes of death.
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PMID:Childhood cancers and competing causes of death. 786 38

In this study the presence of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) carrying B lymphocytes in different B-cell subpopulations from peripheral blood was determined by spontaneous outgrowth which gives rise to lymphoblastoid cell lines. In healthy seropositive adults, the EBV-carrying B cell was predominantly within the IgM- and IgD-positive but not the IgG-positive subpopulations. Furthermore, these B lymphocytes were in the low-density (large cell) Percoll fraction. The IgM- and IgD-positive B cell phenotype suggests the EBV-carrying B cells to be circulating virgin B cells recently released from the bone marrow. These B cells have an estimated life span of only 6-8 weeks suggesting that long-term EBV persistence in the body may be the result of infection of a more primitive B-cell type. Similar experiments were carried out in children with acute malaria from the Gambia, West Africa, where Burkitt lymphoma (BL) is endemic in order to determine whether a population of EBV-carrying B cells could be identified which had a similar phenotype to the BL cell. The EBV-carrying B cells in this patient group were also found in the IgM-positive, IgG-negative B-cell subpopulation. The majority of these cells were found in the low-density (large cell) Percoll fraction although in some patients a proportion was derived from the high-density (small cell) fraction. This cellular phenotype is not representative of a BL cell.
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PMID:Epstein-Barr virus-carrying B cells are large, surface IgM, IgD-bearing cells in normal individuals and acute malaria patients. 795 72

Perennial and intense malaria transmission (holoendemic malaria) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection are 2 cofactors in the pathogenesis of endemic Burkitt lymphoma (eBL). In the present study, we compared EBV loads in children living in 2 regions of Kenya with differing malaria transmission intensities: Kisumu District, where malaria transmission is holoendemic, and Nandi District, where malaria transmission is sporadic. For comparison, blood samples were also obtained from US adults, Kenyan adults, and patients with eBL. Extraction of DNA from blood and quantification by polymerase chain reaction give an EBV load estimate that reflects the number of EBV-infected B cells. We observed a significant linear trend in mean EBV load, with the lowest EBV load detected in US adults and increasing EBV loads detected in Kenyan adults, Nandi children, Kisumu children, and patients with eBL, respectively. In addition, EBV loads were significantly higher in Kisumu children 1-4 years of age than in Nandi children of the same age. Our results support the hypothesis that repeated malaria infections in very young children modulate the persistence of EBV and increase the risk for the development of eBL.
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PMID:Exposure to holoendemic malaria results in elevated Epstein-Barr virus loads in children. 1577 68

Children living in malaria-endemic regions have a high incidence of Burkitt lymphoma (BL), the etiology of which involves Plasmodium falciparum malaria and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infections. In the present study, we compared EBV DNA loads in plasma and saliva samples from Ugandan children with acute malaria (M+) at the time of diagnosis and 14 days after antimalaria treatment, children without malaria (M-), and children with BL. EBV DNA was detected, by real-time polymerase chain reaction, in 31% of the plasma and in 79% of the saliva samples from children in the M+ group. Antimalaria treatment led to clearance of plasma viral load in 85% of the cases but did not affect the levels in saliva. There was a significant difference in plasma EBV loads across the groups. The lowest levels were detected in samples from the M- group, increased levels were detected in samples from the M+ group, and levels reached the highest values in samples from children with BL. The same trend was evident in the frequency and levels of anti-BZLF1 antibodies, which is indicative of viral reactivation. In the M+ group, the positive plasma samples clustered around 7-9 years of age, the peak incidence of BL. The clearance of circulating EBV after antimalaria treatment suggests a direct relationship between active malaria infection and viral reactivation.
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PMID:Clearance of circulating Epstein-Barr virus DNA in children with acute malaria after antimalaria treatment. 1651 59

This review considers recent studies regarding the role of environmental factors in the etiology of childhood leukemia and lymphoma. Potential environmental risk factors identified for childhood leukemia include exposure to magnetic fields of more than 0.4 micro Tessla, exposure to pesticides, solvents, benzene and other hydrocarbons, maternal alcohol consumption (but only for certain genotypes), contaminated drinking water, infections, and high birth weight. The finding of space-time clustering and seasonal variation also supports a role for infections. There is little evidence linking childhood leukemia with lifetime exposure to ionizing radiation although fetal exposures to X-rays are associated with increased risk. Breast-feeding, consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables and having allergies all appear to be protective. Burkitt lymphoma (BL) is confined to areas of the world where malaria is endemic, with the additional involvement of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) as a co-factor. Environmental risk factors suggested for other types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) include exposure to ionizing radiation (both lifetime and antenatal), pesticides, and, in utero exposure to cigarette smoke, benzene and nitrogen dioxide (via the mother). Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is especially associated with higher levels of socioeconomic deprivation, but breast-feeding seems to confer lower risk. This is consistent with an infection or immune-response mediated etiology for HL.
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PMID:Environmental factors and childhood acute leukemias and lymphomas. 1669 May 16

The newly obtained data supplemented our knowledge about risk for travellers, tourists and natives of Europe connected with malaria, leishmaniasis and other tropical diseases. It was discovered that healthy carriers of Epstein-Barr virus (nearly 90% of human population) have a great risk to get chronic Burkitt lymphoma disease as a result of Plasmodium falciparum (tropical malaria agent) infection. HIV carriers being occasionally in contact with visceral leishmaniasis vectors (sand-flies infected on dogs in the Mediterranean area) not only got a heavy form of disease but became a source of infection for healthy people. Airport malaria and outbreaks of dengue fever sometimes were (and are) connected with an import of infective Anopheles or Aedes mosquitoes. The high risk of borreliosis and ehrlichiosis infection exists in the forested European areas along the highways, where picnics and other types of recreation of travellers and tourists are typical and where the anthropogenically changed Ixodes ticks subpopulations are distributed. Such physiologically changed part of tick population is more aggressive and "changed ticks" more often are vectors of one, two or even more agent species simultaneously.
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PMID:Bloodsucking arthropods: the danger for travellers and hazard of vector travelling. 1688 48

Human Vgamma2Vdelta2 T cells recognize nonpeptide antigens derived from pathogenic microbes in a TCR-dependent manner, such as pyrophosphomonoester compounds from mycobacteria and malaria parasite and alkyl amines from Proteus, suggesting that this subset of gamma delta T cells is involved in infectious immunity. The precise recognition mechanism has been delineated using a site-directed mutagenesis strategy based on crystal structure of gamma delta TCR. On the other hand, several lines of evidence indicate that human gamma delta T cells are involved in tumor immunity. Although activated gamma delta T cells exhibit a cytolytic activity against most of tumor cells, only a small fraction of tumor cells, like Burkitt lymphoma cells and multiple myeloid cells, is recognized by human gamma delta T cells in a TCR-dependent manner. This implicates that human gamma delta T cells have two distinct pathways for anti-tumor immunity. One is a natural killer-like pathway and the other is a TCR-dependent pathway. Recently, it was shown that treatment of human tumor cells with nitrogen-containing bisphosphonates, therapeutic drugs for hypercalcemia in malignancy, generated antigenic structure on the surface of tumor cells, which could be recognized by human gamma delta T cells in a TCR-dependent manner. This tumor labeling system may lead to a novel strategy for cancer immunotherapy.
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PMID:Human gamma delta T cells and tumor immunotherapy. 1705 4


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