SHORT COMMUNICATION Characterization of a Chemokine Receptor-Related Gene in Human Herpesvirus 8 and Its Expression in Kaposi's Sarcoma

Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) is a recently discovered virus that is highly associated with Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) andAIDS-associated body cavity lymphomas, although it is also found in some normal individuals. HHV-8 is related by nucleotidesequence homology to herpesvirus saimiri (HVS), which causes T cell lymphomas in some New World monkeys, and toEpstein–Barr virus (EBV), a human herpesvirus linked etiologically with Burkitt’s lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma.We report that, like HVS but unlike EBV, HHV-8 contains a gene (ORF74) with significant sequence homology to the high-affinity IL-8 receptor, a member of the