Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus protein ORF75 among HIV-1 patients in Kenya

BACKGROUND: Histology is used to identify Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) in countries with low resources to fund healthcare costs. Approximately 95% of KS cases can be detected using a polymerase chain reaction. OBJECTIVE: To determine the presence of the open reading frame 75 (ORF75) gene associated with Kaposi’s sarcoma herpes virus among HIV-1/AIDS patients and to describe morphological presentations of KS. METHODS: This was a retrospective, descriptive study of archived tissue blocks collected from 2013 to 2016. Haematoxylin and eosin staining was used to identify KS. Deoxyribonucleic acid from archived tissue blocks was extracted and a nested polymerase chain reaction was used to detect the ORF75 gene. RESULTS: All 81 cases in this study had been diagnosed as HIV-1 positive, of which 68 had hallmark features of KS in the histology report and 13 had features suggestive of KS (‘KS-like’). Microscopic identification of KS by haematoxylin and eosin staining was considered a significant indicator of KS herpes virus ORF75 gene positivity (p = 0.002). The ORF75 gene was detected in 60.5% (49/81) of tissue blocks; 27.2% were men (22/81) and 33.3% were women (27/81). The ORF75 gene was observed to be present in up to 15.4% (2/13) of the cases reported to have KS-like features. CONCLUSION: Following the initial diagnosis of KS by histology, the ORF75 gene was fur-ther detected from both cases that had hallmark features of KS as well as among cases with KS-like fea-tures.