The Role of Viral Proteins in Epstein-Barr Virus Induced Disease

<Introduction> The Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) is a common human herpes virus that can cause both infectious mononucleosis and lymphoproliferative disease. EBV is unique in that it infects about 95% of the adult population between 35-40 years old in the U.S. [1]. EBV is associated with cancers such as Burkitt’s Lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma [1,2]. The virus is capable of infection of host B-cells which primarily occurs via a non-lytic mechanism [2]. During this latent process, virus-derived nuclear proteins (EBNAs) and membrane proteins (LMPs) are expressed by infected host cells [2]. An advancing area of research is aimed at understanding how LMP proteins may play a role in lymphoproliferative disease. LMP-1 is one of these membranous proteins, and has been shown to cause induce indefinite, tumorigenic, replication in infected B-cells [3]. The mechanism by which this occurs is a field of study vital to a deeper understanding of the pathogenicity of EBV.