currentsinbiology: Epstein-Barr virus and cancer: New tricks...

[Health and Medicine]

currentsinbiology:

Epstein-Barr virus and cancer: New tricks from an old dog

After an infection with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), the virus persists in the body throughout a person’s lifetime, usually without causing any symptoms. About one third of infected teenagers and young adults nevertheless develop infectious mononucleosis, also known as glandular fever or kissing disease, which usually wears off after a few weeks. In rare cases, however, the virus causes cancer, particularly lymphomas and cancers of the stomach and of the nasopharynx.

Scientists have been trying for a long time to elucidate how the viruses reprogram cells into becoming cancer cells. “The contribution of the viral infection to cancer development in patients with a weakened immune system is well understood” says Henri-Jacques Delecluse, a cancer researcher at the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) in Heidelberg. “But in the majority of cases, it remains unclear how an EBV infection leads to cancer development.”

In their present publication, Delecluse, in collaboration with Ingrid Hoffmann, also from the DKFZ, and their respective groups present a new and surprising explanation for this phenomenon. The scientists have shown for the first time that a protein component of the virus itself promotes the development of cancer. When a dividing cell comes in contact with Epstein-Barr viruses, a viral protein present in the infectious particle called BNRF1 frequently leads to the formation of an excessive number of spindle poles (centrosomes). As a result, the chromosomes are no longer divided equally and accurately between the two daughter cells – a known and acknowledged cancer risk factor. By contrast, Epstein-Barr viruses that had been made deficient of BNRF1 did not interfere with chromosome distribution to the daughter cells.

Anatoliy Shumilov, Ming-Han Tsai, Yvonne T. Schlosser, Anne-Sophie Kratz, Katharina Bernhardt, Susanne Fink, Tuba Mizani, Xiaochen Lin, Anna Jauch, Josef Mautner, Annette Kopp-Schneider, Regina Feederle, Ingrid Hoffmann, Henri-Jacques Delecluse. Epstein–Barr virus particles induce centrosome amplification and chromosomal instability. Nature Communications, 2017; 8: 14257 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14257

After an infection with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), the virus persists in the body throughout a person’s lifetime.  Credit: © Henri-Jacques Delecluse/DKFZ

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