prevalence of human herpes virus 8 infection and pattern of tlr4 rs4986791 polymorphism in women with breast cancer

Background: breast cancer is a major cause of female death worldwide. several factors contribute to cancer development, one of the most important of which is viruses identified by the host immune system and toll-like receptors (tlrs). human herpes virus 8 (hhv-8) is one of the viruses with a proven role in kaposi’s sarcoma development. objectives: this study aimed to investigate the correlation between hhv-8 infection and breast cancer, as well as the role of rs4986791 polymorphism in women’s health. methods: blood samples of 80 healthy subjects and 80 patients suffering from breast cancer were collected (from may-september 2018). the presence of hhv-8 in the samples was examined by pcr. also, the rs4986791 polymorphism was evaluated by nested pcrrflp. results: the results showed a significant relationship between age and breast cancer. of 80 cancer patients and 80 healthy subjects, 17 (21.3%) and 15 (18.8%) were carriers of hhv-8, respectively. also, there was no significant relationship between hhv-8 infection and breast cancer (p = 0.693). we found no significant relationship between the presence of virus and cancer grade (p = 0.618). conclusions: the results of rs498679 polymorphism analysis indicated that the t allele was associated with increased health phenotype and decreased risk of cancer development. also, women with tt genotype exhibited significantly lower hhv-8 infection than the other genotypes.