Epstein-barr virus-infected b cells persist in the circulation of acyclovir-treated virus carriers

✍ Scribed by Q. Y. Yao; P. Ogan; M. Rowe; M. Wood; A. B. Rickinson

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 639 KB
• Volume: 43
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/ijc.2910430115

✦ Synopsis

In this study, infectious Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) shedding in the oropharynx and numbers of virus-infected B cells in the blood have been monitored in long-term virus carriers receiving acyclovir (ACV) therapy for herpes zoster. Eleven patients on oral ACV were followed prospectively before, during and for 2 weeks after treatment. As expected, the low levels of EBV shedding in these virus carriiers (measured as cord-blood lymphocyte transforming activity in throat washings) were eliminated during the period of ACV treatment and returned at later times. Over the same period, however, the frequency of virus-infected B cells in the Idood (measured by spontaneous transformation in limiting dilution assay) remained completely unchanged. Regression assays showed that these same patients had normal levels of EBV-specific cytotoxic Tcell immunity, so that the in vivo persistence of virus-infected B cells could not be ascribed to a defect in T-cell surveillance. We infer that the in vivo half-liffe of the virus-infected B-cell pool in long-term virus carriers is measured in months rather than days. We further suggest that such persistence requires a novel form of virus:B-cell intenaction distinct from the type of ''latent'' infection displayed by in vitretransformed cells.