Abstract :
Prostate cancer (PC) is the leading cause of cancer death in men over 70 years old in Morocco. Viral infections appear to cause genetic changes leading to the initiation and progression of PC. Several studies have sought the association between PC and certain infectious agents including herpes simplex type 2 (HSV-2). HSV-2 is a virus that can prevent autophagy of infected cells, promotes angiogenesis and encodes microRNAs acting as carcinogenesis cofactors in PCs. Our study aimed to analyze the blood prevalence of HSV infection in Moroccan patients with PC and their possible associations with clinico-pathological features. A total 100 blood samples from Moroccan patients were analyzed by Conventional PCR technique with specific primers for HSV-2. Among the 100 cases, 38 (38%) were positive for HSV-2 and 62 (62%) were negative. No significant association was found between HSV-2 infection and high risk of prostate cancer based on the D'Amico classification (p=0.727). Our finding showed that a possible association has been demonstrated between the high risk of PC and HSV-2 infection. More case-control studies and molecular analyzes are essential to explain the infection of HSV-2 and its association in PC.
