Associations between early-life and in utero infections and cytomegalovirus-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children.

ABSTRACT: Childhood infections and cytomegalovirus (CMV) are associated with pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). CMV dysregulates the host immune system and alters the immune response to subsequent antigenic exposures. We suspect that this immune dysregulation contributes to increased numbers of symptomatic infections in childhood allowing for expansion of pre-leukemic clones. We explored the association between childhood infections, maternal infections during pregnancy and CMV-positive ALL. Using a droplet digital PCR assay, we screened diagnostic ALL bone marrow samples from the California Childhood Leukemia Study (1995-2015) for the presence of CMV DNA identifying CMV-positive and CMV-negative cases. We performed a case-only analysis (n = 524) comparing the number and types of childhood

SUBMITTER: Gallant RE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10092298 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature