Human Cytomegalovirus and COX2 Expression among Women with Breast Tumors

Elnegery, Aya A.; Abou Elela, Mohammad A.; Mohamed, Sahar T.; Ragab, Omar F.A.; Yussif, Shaimaa M.I.; Abou El-Khier, Noha T.

doi:10.21608/ejmm.2024.327382

Human Cytomegalovirus and COX2 Expression among Women with Breast Tumors

Document Type : New and original researches in the field of Microbiology.

Authors

¹ Medical Microbiology & Immunology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Egypt

² Medical Microbiology & Immunology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University and Horus University, Egypt

³ Oncology Center, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Egypt

⁴ Pathology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Egypt

10.21608/ejmm.2024.327382

Abstract

Background: The human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) has been linked to all cancer characteristics, leading to increasing speculation that it plays a role in oncomodulation and human carcinogenesis. An increasing body of research demonstrates a connection between HCMV infection and a number of cancers, including breast cancer. Inflammatory cells produce chemokines, cytokines, and growth factors into the microenvironment of the tumor that encourage tumor growth and malignancy. Biopsies of breast cancer often showed COX-2 expression, which HCMV might be the cause of. Objectives: Our study aimed to through a beam of light on HCMV as a viral etiology of breast tumors and investigate the association between HCMV infection and simultaneous expression of COX2 in women with breast tumors. Methodology: We assessed HCMV DNA presence by nested type PCR and COX-2 by ELISA in breast tissues obtained from 33 breast cancer (BC) patients, 24 benign breast lesions, and 33 normal breast tissues. Results: We found that there was a statistically significant weak association between HCMV DNA in malignant, benign breast lesions and normal breast tissue groups (p=0.036) and (V =0.283). Also, there was a statistically significant difference between the studied malignant, benign breast lesions and normal breast tissue groups as regard median COX-2 (p =0.0088). In addition, presence of HCMV proteins (E/IE) was identified in 4 breast cancer tissue samples (25%), there was a weak positive correlation between HCMV viral proteins (E/IE) and COX-2 in group IA with statistically insignificant difference r= 0.26 and (p= 0.15). Conclusion: We concluded that the existence of CMV DNA and proteins in breast cancer (BC) tissues points to the virus's involvement. In addition, COX-2 may contribute to the development of BC.

Keywords

Main Subjects