Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Infection Suppresses The Expression Levels of Serum Cytokines in Follicular Lymphoma Patients

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is an indolent B-cell neoplasm. Increasing evidence suggests that chronic cytomegalovirus infection impacts the immunity of FL patients. This study was designed to unveil the impact of CMV infection on FL biology. Pretreatment serum samples from 42 FL patients recruited into a phase 3 FL clinical trial to compare two alternative frontline chemoimmunotherapy regimens were used. Twenty-one (21) of these patients had tested positive for CMV IgG antibodies, whereas 21 patients were negative. A multiplex assay was employed to measure the expression levels of 27 cytokines in each of these samples. Results were then compared between CMV-positive and CMV- negative groups using the Mann-Whitney U test using IBM SPSS Statistics version 20. Sera from CMV-positive FL patients showed decreased expression levels of most cytokines than those from the CMV-negative population. Data shows a statistically significant down-regulation of IL-6, IL-8, IL-9, IL-17A, FGF-basic, MIP-1α, and MIP-1β expression in CMV-positive FL patients compared to the CMV-negative group. Overall, our results suggest that CMV infection down-regulates the expression levels of serum cytokines in FL. Complementary studies to investigate immune cells in these patients' blood and tissue biopsies could provide a comprehensive perspective on the impact of CMV infection on FL.