Detection of Epstein-Barr Virus Strain Variants in Lymphoblastoid Cell Lines 'Spontaneously' Derived from Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis, Infectious Mononucleosis and Normal Controls

Abstract

SUMMARY'Spontaneous' lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL) were established from patients with either rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or infectious mononucleosis (IM) or from healthy donors. Differences in Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) strains were determined by measuring the mol. wt. and expression of viral antigens in each of the LCLs. In addition to the previously reported EBV nuclear antigens, the LCLs also contained EBV-induced antigens with tool. wt. of 48K and 58K which were present in all but two of the lines. One of the differences observed between each of the groups of cell lines was their ability to produce viral antigens. Early and late antigens were identified by immunoblotting in most of the RA lines, two of the normal lines but none of the cell lines from patients with IM. Many of the IM cell lines were also found to express multiple EBNA1 antigens. The results demonstrate that a variety of wild-type EBV strains exist. However, the similarities observed in a number of the lines suggest that the diversity of strains may be limited.

Genetic polymorphism of natural Epstein-Barr virus isolates from infectious mononucleosis patients and healthy carriers

“…Thus, type A virus may be further differentiated as A-C or A-D according to polymorphism of the BamHI I region of the viral genome. Using the regions of genetic polymorphism as epidemiological markers, we observed a great deal of heterogeneity among natural EBV strains associated with IM patients and healthy individuals, confirming earlier studies on recently established LCLs (22,28). In a university community, viruses of several genotypes are circulating simultaneously.…”

Antigenic variation in alkaline deoxyribonuclease induced by three different strains of Epstein‐Barr virus

“…As already discussed, little is known of the biological implications of genomic differences in EBV isolates studied thus far. There are data showing that there may be naturally occurring transforming defective EBV isolates similar to HR-1 EBV [Alfieri and Joncas, 19871, and that there are antigenic differences between surface and envelope structural polypeptides of HR-1 and B95-8 viruses [Mueller-Lantzsch et al, 19811. There are also recent data showing differences in EBNA-1 and EBNA-2 products, as well as polymorphism in different clinical isolates [Sculley et al, 1987;Katz et al, 19881. Our results demonstrate that there are antigenic and electrophoretic differences in the DNases induced by different isolates of EBV. These results suggest that there may be differences in the amino acid composition and/or structure of these enzymes, and that there is biological variation between these strains of EBV.…”

Epstein‐Barr virus strain characterization

“…A variety of wild-type EBV strains exist in the general population. However, similarities in a number of LCLs suggest that the diversity of wild-type strains may be limited (Sculley et al 1987). Gratama and colleagues observed that most unrelated individuals carry a single and distinctive Ebnotype.…”