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.
Medical Virology Section, Laboratory of Clinical Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.
Susan E
SE
Hoover
Junichi
J
Kawada
Wyndham
W
Wilson
Jeffrey I
JI
Cohen
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