Are there any highly oncogenic Epstein-Barr virus strains?

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K14391
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Tumor biology
• Research Institution: Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University (2016); Aichi Cancer Center Research Institute (2015)
• Principal Investigator: KANDA Teru 東北医科薬科大学, 医学部, 教授 (50333472)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: EBウイルス / 胃がん / ゲノム編集 / クローン化 / 上皮細胞 / 発がん

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Approximately 10% of gastric cancer cells are positive for Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection. Genome editing technology was used to clone full length genomes of two EBV strains derived from gastric cancer cell lines, and their sequences were determined. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that both strains belong to EBV family commonly observed in East Asian countries. When immortalized keratinocytes were stably infected with these gastric cancer-derived EBVs, the infected cells became resistant to oncogene-induced cell death, implicating the role of EBV infection in the initial phases of epithelial carcinogenesis.

Free Research Field

ウイルス学