Oropharyngeal shedding of Epstein-Barr virus in the absence of circulating B cells.
Infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) results in lifelong infection of B cells in the peripheral blood and in episodic shedding of virus from the oropharynx. We monitored patients treated with rituximab (anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody) and found that several had both no detectable B cells and no EBV in the blood but shed EBV from the throat. Although some models postulate that EBV traffics from the B cells in the blood to the throat, where it is subsequently shed, our findings indicate that circulating EBV in B cells is not necessary for the virus to persist in, and to be shed from, the oropharynx.
Hoover
Susan E
SE
Medical Virology Section, Laboratory of Clinical Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
Kawada
Junichi
J
Wilson
Wyndham
W
Cohen
Jeffrey I
JI
D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000627:therapeutic use; D058846:Antibodies, Monoclonal, Murine-Derived; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000821:virology*; D001769:Blood / Q000821:virology; D020031:Epstein-Barr Virus Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000276:immunology* / Q000821:virology*; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D009960:Oropharynx / Q000821:virology*; D000069283:Rituximab; D017201:Virus Shedding
D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D058846:Antibodies, Monoclonal, Murine-Derived; D000069283:Rituximab