HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Zhou, X.-G. Articles by Hamilton-Dutoit, S. J. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Zhou, X.-G. Articles by Hamilton-Dutoit, S. J. Agricola Articles by Zhou, X.-G. Articles by Hamilton-Dutoit, S. J.

Epstein–Barr virus gene polymorphisms in Chinese Hodgkin’s disease cases and healthy donors: identification of three distinct virus variants

Institute of Pathology, Aarhus Kommunehospital, Noerrebrogade 44, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark¹
Research Unit of Molecular Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital and Faculty of Health Sciences, Aarhus, Denmark²
Departments of Pathology of Beijing Hospital³, Beijing Children’s Hospital⁴, Beijing 301 Hospital⁵, Beijing Railway General Hospital⁶, Wunancabumong District Hospital⁷ and Beijing Air Army General Hospital⁸, People’s Republic of China

Author for correspondence: Xiao-Ge Zhou (at Institute of Pathology). Fax +45 89 49 3570. e-mail zhouxg{at}hotmail.com

Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) is associated with several malignancies. Specific EBV gene variants, e.g. the BamHI f configuration, a C-terminal region 30 bp deletion in the latent membrane protein-1 (LMP1) gene (del-LMP) and the loss of an XhoI site in LMP1 (XhoI-loss), are found in Chinese cases of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), suggesting that EBV sequence variation may be involved in oncogenesis. In order to understand better the epidemiology of these EBV variants, they were studied in virus isolates from EBV-positive Chinese cases of Hodgkin’s disease (HD; n=71) and donor throat washings from healthy Chinese. Sequencing was performed of 15 representative EBV isolates, including the first analysis of the LMP1 promoter in Asian wild-type EBV isolates. The following observations were made. (i) Three EBV LMP1 variants were identified, designated Chinese groups (CG) 1–3. In both EBV-associated HD and in healthy Chinese, CG1-like viruses showing del-LMP1 and XhoI-loss were predominant. (ii) CG1viruses were distinct from European and African variants, suggesting that this profile is useful for epidemiological studies. (iii) Specific patterns of mutations were present in the LMP1 promoter in both CG1 and CG2. (iv) The BamHI f variant was not found in Chinese HD, in contrast to Chinese NPC and European HD. This study confirms that EBV isolates in Chinese HD and other tumours differ from those reported in Western cases. However, this reflects the predominant virus strain present in the healthy Chinese population, suggesting that these are geographically restricted polymorphisms rather than tumour-specific strains.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				A. Jansson, P. Johansson, S. Li, and L. Rymo Activity of the LMP1 gene promoter in Epstein-Barr virus-transformed cell lines is modulated by sequence variations in the promoter-proximal CRE site J. Gen. Virol., July 1, 2007; 88(7): 1887 - 1894. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]