title: Epstein-Barr virus strains and variations: Geographic or disease-specific variants?
abstract: The Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) is associated with the development of several diseases, including infectious mononucleosis (IM), Burkitt's Lymphoma (BL), Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, and other neoplasias. The publication of EBV genome 1984 led to several studies regarding the identification of different viral strains. Currently, EBV is divided into EBV type 1 (B95-8 strain) and EBV type 2 (AG876 strain), also known as type A and type B, which have been distinguished based upon genetic differences in the Epstein-Barr nuclear antigens (EBNAs) sequence. Several other EBV strains have been described in the past 10 years considering variations on EBV genome, and many have attempted to clarify if these variations are ethnic or geographically correlated, or if they are disease related. Indeed, there is an increasing interest to describe possible specific disease associations, with emphasis on different malignancies. These studies aim to clarify if these variations are ethnic or geographically correlated, or if they are disease related, thus being important to characterize the epidemiologic genetic distribution of EBV strains on our population. Here, we review the current knowledge on the different EBV strains and variants and its association with different diseases. J. Med. Virol. 89:373-387, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Oncology and Viral Pathology Group, Research Centre (CI-IPOP), Porto, Portugal.|Faculty of Medicine of University of Porto (FMUP), Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Neves
authors.affiliation: Molecular Oncology and Viral Pathology Group, Research Centre (CI-IPOP), Porto, Portugal.|Virology Service, Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto, Porto, Portugal.|Abel Salazar Institute for the Biomedical Sciences of University of Porto (ICBAS-UP), Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Joana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Marinho-Dias
authors.affiliation: Molecular Oncology and Viral Pathology Group, Research Centre (CI-IPOP), Porto, Portugal.|Faculty of Medicine of University of Porto (FMUP), Porto, Portugal.|Virology Service, Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Joana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ribeiro
authors.affiliation: Molecular Oncology and Viral Pathology Group, Research Centre (CI-IPOP), Porto, Portugal.|Virology Service, Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Hugo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sousa
mesh_terms: D020031:Epstein-Barr Virus Infections / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology*; D005006:Ethnicity; D014644:Genetic Variation; D004854:Herpesvirus 4, Human / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D019371:Topography, Medical
keywords: Epstein-Barr virus; genetic variation; oncogenesis; pathology; virus classification