title: A transformation-incompetent, nuclear antigen 2-deleted Epstein-Barr virus associated with replicative infection.
abstract: Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) obtained directly from the oropharynx was used to detect viral DNA deleted for the EBV nuclear antigen 2 (EBNA2)-encoding gene that is essential for lymphocyte transformation. By polymerase chain reaction analysis, the deletion was found in virus from 5 of 33 healthy adult donors and 11 of 12 patients with concurrent human immunodeficiency virus infection. Lymphoblastoid cell lines that produce standard transforming EBV also harbored EBNA2-deleted virus in cells permissive of EBV replication. In vitro infectivity studies indicated that the DNA is packaged and transmissible, with biologic properties similar to those of a laboratory mutant, P3HR-1, which also lacks the EBNA2 gene. These findings, obtained from productively infected cell systems, provide evidence for the existence in nature of a transformation-incompetent EBV variant that may facilitate EBV persistence and the emergence of reactivation diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 38101-0318.
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Sixbey
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Shirley
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sloas
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Raab-Traub
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Israele
mesh_terms: D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D002460:Cell Line; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000276:immunology; D002472:Cell Transformation, Viral; D002872:Chromosome Deletion; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D019309:Epstein-Barr Virus Nuclear Antigens; D006566:Herpesviridae Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D009960:Oropharynx / Q000382:microbiology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014779:Virus Replication
chemical_list: D000956:Antigens, Viral; D004279:DNA, Viral; D019309:Epstein-Barr Virus Nuclear Antigens