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New Insight into EBV Mechanism Could Boost Vaccine Development

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a ubiquitous human herpesvirus, with serologic evidence of infection present in the majority of the population. EBV has been associated with a variety of hematolymphoid malignancies and also has been observed in a number of epithelial tumors.

There are currently no treatments or vaccines to prevent EBV, and despite extensive study, the mechanism by which EBV gains entry into the cells it infects has not been completely understood.

New Insight into EBV Mechanism Could Boost Vaccine Development
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)

Now, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Stanford University researchers have discovered new insights into the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), spurring the potential for vaccine development.

Study findings published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) outlined how EBV proteins and other herpesvirus proteins function in mediating the process of viral infection in humans – analyzing the binding sites for antibodies that are able to neutralize EBV infection and describing the mechanisms by which these antibodies block viral entry. Investigators said the antibodies block fusion with epithelial and B cells, which are the cells types that EBV

infects in humans.

These studies may result in the generation of antibodies that protect humans from EBV infection and also provide new ideas for the development of vaccine candidates to prevent infection of humans by the EBV and other human herpesviruses,” said Richard Longnecker, the study’s co-author with Stanford University professor Theodore Jardetzky and a member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.

Richard Longnecker and Bertha Spear, in the study, analyzed the binding sites on these proteins for antibodies that are able to neutralize EBV infection and described the mechanisms by which these antibodies block viral entry. The antibodies block fusion with epithelial and B cells, which are the cells types that EBV infects in humans.

Karthik Sathiyamoorthy, Ph.D., first author of both papers, is a post-doctoral fellow in Jardetzky’s laboratory. Jia Chen, Ph.D., and Britta Möhl, Ph.D., post-doctoral fellows in Longnecker’s laboratory, were also co-authors of the paper. Jiansen Jiang, Ph.D., and Hong Zhou, Ph.D., of the University of California, Los Angeles, contributed important expertise to the published studies.

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