Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1990. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
EPSTEIN-BARR VIRUS AND ITS ANTIGENS
Immunol Ser; 43:477-98 1989. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE ICDB/90657866 Raab-Traub N; Pagano JS; Lineberger Cancer Res. Center, Sch. of Medicine, Univ. of North; Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Abstract:
The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is the only well-characterized virus known to infect human B lymphocytes. This ubiquitous agent infects human beings universally. An EBV infection also evokes striking cell-mediated immune responses, both specific and nonspecific, as part of a host response to a unique consequence of EBV infection, namely, immortalization of B lymphocytes. EBV and its effects on humans are discussed, including EBV biology; virology (classification, genome, experimental cell systems, and viral expression in nonpermissive infection); immunologic response to primary infection; infectious mononucleosis (manifestations, pathogenesis, and immunologic responses); immunologic features of Burkitt's lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC); and EBV and immunodeficiency (Duncan's syndrome and acquired immunodeficiency). It is now recognized that gene rearrangement coupled with functional activation can result from chromosomal translocation. Such gene rearrangements occur with high frequency in malignancies of myeloid or lymphoid origin. The involvement of various genes, viral and cellular, conforms to a multistep molecular process leading to malignancy. Specific EBV gene products are now being studied that may trigger activation of other genes, viral and cellular, whose joint or sequential actions culminate in transformation. All of these molecular events take place in key cells of the immune system and have consequences on elements of immune function. EBV naturally infects epithelial cells as well as lymphocytes, EBV is associated with epithelial malignancies other than NPC that arise in the oropharynx, and oncogene activation may well complete the transformation process by providing critical last steps and final common pathways. The concept that EBV initiates, even if it does not finally govern, the steps in the transformation process of the diverse EBV-associated malignancies is beginning to be rationalized at the molecular level. The immune system contributes variously at stages in this process, shading the outcome. (73 Refs)
Keywords: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/IMMUNOLOGY/MICROBIOLOGY Animal Antigens, Viral/*GENETICS/IMMUNOLOGY Burkitt's Lymphoma/IMMUNOLOGY/MICROBIOLOGY Cell Line Genes, Viral Herpesvirus 4, Human/GENETICS/*IMMUNOLOGY/PHYSIOLOGY Human Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes/IMMUNOLOGY/MICROBIOLOGY Infectious Mononucleosis/IMMUNOLOGY/MICROBIOLOGY Lymphocytes/MICROBIOLOGY Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms/IMMUNOLOGY/MICROBIOLOGY Virus Replication JOURNAL ARTICLE REVIEW REVIEW, TUTORIAL 900330
M9030724
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Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1990. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
