الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) is a member of the herpes virus
family infects at least 90% of the world’s population and can
persist in a latent form after primary infection. Reactivation can
occur years later, particularly under conditions of
immunosuppression. In immunosuppressed patients, EBV
reactivation and re-infection are associated with high
seroprevalence levels in the serum, and EBV-DNA can also
sometimes be detected in critically ill patients. The present study
has been designed to investigate the co-infection of Epstein-Barr
Virus (EBV) in sera samples from patients positive and negative
for HCV infection using serological and molecular detection
techniques to study the role of EBV in the pathogenesis of HCV
infections and also investigate the cellular and humoral immune
response to EBV infection in HCV patients through estimation
of: - The percentage of CD+4, CD+3 and CD+19 lymphocytes. -
The cytokine production levels. All these parameters will
undergo comparison between infected and non-infected people.
The study included three subjects: (1) Seventy nine chronic HCV
patients (cases with positive HCV-RNA). This group included 25
cases with latent EBV infection (cases with positive EBV-IgG
antibodies), 20 cases with reactivated EBV infection (cases with
positive EBV-IgG and DNA) and 3 cases with primary EBV
infection (cases with positive EBV-IgM and DNA). (2) Thirty six
cases with positive HCV-IgG and negative HCV-RNA (negative
control group). This group included 17 cases with latent EBV
infection (cases with positive EBV-IgG antibodies), 2 cases with
reactivated EBV infection (cases with positive EBV-IgG and
DNA) and 2 cases with primary EBV infection (cases with
positive EBV-IgM and DNA). (3) Fifty two cases without HCV
infection (normal control group). This group included 15 cases
with latent EBV infection (cases with positive EBV-IgG
antibodies), 3 cases with reactivated EBV infection (cases with
positive EBV-IgG and DNA) and 1 case with primary EBV
infection (cases with positive EBV-IgM and DNA). The
prevalence of latent EBV infection in HCV patients was higher
than that of reactivated EBV infection than primary EBV
infection, as with other herpes viruses. Latency follows all
primary infections and is considered to be lifelong. Latent
infection is the most prevalent EBV infection in the general
population at any given time. Serum activity levels of ALT and
AST showed a highly significant (p<0.01) elevation in
HCV/EBV cases, HCV cases and EBV cases than healthy
individuals. The percentage of CD3+ cells showed a significant
(p<0.05) decrease in HCV/EBV, HCV, EBV patients when
compared with healthy cases. These results indicate that a
defective cellular innate immune response in those patients.
CD4+ cells percentage showed a highly significant (p<0.01)
reduction in HCV/EBV, HCV, EBV cases when compared with
healthy individuals. CD19+ cells percentage showed a significant
(p<0.05) reduction in HCV/EBV, HCV, and EBV cases than
healthy cases.