EBV-Associated Cancer and Autoimmunity: Searching for Therapies.
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infects B-, T-, and NK cells and has been associated not only with a wide range of lymphoid malignancies but also with autoimmune diseases such as lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis and, in particular, multiple sclerosis. Hence, effective immunotherapeutic approaches to eradicate EBV infection might overthrow cancer and autoimmunity incidence. However, currently no effective anti-EBV immunotherapy is available. Here we use the concept that protein immunogenicity is allocated in rare peptide sequences and search the Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1) sequence for peptides unique to the viral protein and absent in the human host. We report on a set of unique EBV EBNA1 peptides that might be used in designing peptide-based therapies able to specifically hitting the virus or neutralizing pathogenic autoantibodies.
Department of Biosciences, Biotechnologies and Biopharmaceutics, University of Bari, Bari 70126, Italy. g.capone@biologia.uniba.it.
Giovanni
G
Capone
Department of Biosciences, Biotechnologies and Biopharmaceutics, University of Bari, Bari 70126, Italy. candida.fasano@gmail.com.
Candida
C
Fasano
Brain and Language Laboratory, Free University of Berlin, 14195 Berlin, Germany. guglielmo.lucchese@hotmail.com.
Guglielmo
G
Lucchese
Department of Biosciences, Biotechnologies and Biopharmaceutics, University of Bari, Bari 70126, Italy. michele.calabro@hotmail.it.
Michele
M
Calabrò
Department of Biosciences, Biotechnologies and Biopharmaceutics, University of Bari, Bari 70126, Italy. darja.kanduc@uniba.it.
Darja
D
Kanduc
EBV EBNA1; anti-EBV vaccine; autoimmunity; cancer; low-similarity peptides; peptide matching; peptide-therapy