Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), the major constituent of green tea, has been shown to induce cell death in cancer cells. Primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) is an aggressive neoplasm caused by human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8). In this study, we examined the role of EGCG on PEL cells in cell death and HHV8 replication. We performed trypan blue exclusion assay to assess the cell viability of PEL cells, flow cytometry analysis to examine the cell cycle distribution and reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, caspase-3 activity to assay apoptosis, acridine orange staining to determine autophagy, and immunoblotting to detect the protein levels involved in apoptosis and autophagy as well as mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPKs) activation upon EGCG treatment. The expression of the HHV8 lytic gene was determined by luciferase reporter assay and reverse transcription-PCR, and viral progeny production was determined by PCR. Results revealed that EGCG induced cell death and ROS generation in PEL cells in a dose-dependent manner. N-acetylcysteine (NAC) inhibited the EGCG-induced ROS and rescued the cell from EGCG-induced cell death. Even though EGCG induced ROS generation in PEL cells, it reduced the production of progeny virus from PEL cells without causing HHV8 reactivation. These results suggest that EGCG may represent a novel strategy for the treatment of HHV8 infection and HHV8-associated lymphomas.

A bibliometric analysis was conducted to evaluate the global scientific output of KSHV/HHV8 research in the Science Citation Index Expanded from 1991 to 2016. The publications were analysed in terms of document type, language of publication, trends in publication, journals, Web of Science categories, and publications of countries, institutions, and authors. The results showed that Journal of Virology led 610 journals. The researchers focused on the category of virology. The USA took the lead position among 92 countries with 58% of all the KSHV/HHV8 articles. Top ten productive institutions were all from the USA. National Cancer Institute, University of California, San Francisco, and Harvard University from the USA led top three the institutions. A comprehensive analysis of keywords revealed that HIV, lymphoma, and EBV were recent foci. The proportion of number of single institution articles : number of nationally collaborative articles : number of internationally collaborative articles (S : N : I) was used to compare performance of institutions. Y-index was also applied to evaluate authors’ publication performance. Chang’s group published the first in KSHV/HHV8 research field.