Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK.
Br J Haematol. 2012 Mar;156(6):777-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2141.2011.09008.x. Epub 2012 Jan 11.
The chance germinal encounter with the first lecture outside Africa on Burkitt lymphoma is described together with the hypothesis of a viral cause. Repeated virological investigations on lymphoma biopsies proved negative, leading to the idea that a latent virus might be activated if lymphoma cells could be cultured, although no human lymphoid cell had at that time ever been maintained in vitro. A chance event reminding of the need for suspension culture with mouse lymphomas led to success. The cultured cells carried a morphologically unequivocal, strangely inert, herpesvirus shown later to be immunologically, biologically and biochemically unique. How this new agent acquired its name, Epstein-Barr virus, is explained.
本文描述了作者在非洲以外第一次聆听关于伯基特淋巴瘤讲座时的偶然经历，以及关于病毒病因的假说。对淋巴瘤活检进行了多次病毒学调查，但均为阴性，这使得作者认为，如果能够培养淋巴瘤细胞，潜伏病毒可能会被激活，尽管当时还没有人类淋巴样细胞在体外得到维持。一个偶然事件使作者想起需要用鼠淋巴瘤进行悬浮培养，最终获得了成功。培养的细胞携带一种形态学上明确无误、奇怪的无活性疱疹病毒，后来证明这种病毒在免疫学、生物学和生物化学上都是独特的。解释了这种新的病原体如何获得其名称，即爱泼斯坦-巴尔病毒。
