Moss D J, Misko I S, Burrows S R, Burman K, McCarthy R, Sculley T B
Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Herston, Brisbane, Australia.
Nature. 1988 Feb 25;331(6158):719-21. doi: 10.1038/331719a0.
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is the aetiological agent of infectious mononucleosis and is associated with Burkitt's lymphoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma. The virus is harboured for life in all previously infected individuals and is apparently controlled by a population of EBV-specific memory T lymphocytes, specifically activated to recognize the functionally defined lymphocyte-detected membrane antigen. Two types (A and B) of EBV have been identified that show DNA sequence divergence within the BamH1 WYH region of the genome encoding the transformation-associated antigen, Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen 2 (EBNA 2) (ref. 4). To define the function of EBNA 2 in T-cell recognition, we have compared the ability of EBV-specific cytotoxic T-cell clones to distinguish between autologous B lymphocytes transformed by A- or B-type virus. We have now isolated both CD4 and CD8 cytotoxic T-cell clones that recognize autologous A-type but not B-type transformed lymphoblastoid cell lines, thus providing the first evidence that EBV-specific T-cell recognition can be mediated by EBNA 2. As this antigen is not expressed in Burkitt's lymphoma, this finding explains the failure of EBV-specific T-cell surveillance to eliminate the tumour.
爱泼斯坦-巴尔病毒（EBV）是传染性单核细胞增多症的病原体，与伯基特淋巴瘤和鼻咽癌有关。该病毒在所有既往感染过的个体中终身潜伏，显然受到一群EBV特异性记忆T淋巴细胞的控制，这些细胞被特异性激活以识别功能上定义的淋巴细胞检测膜抗原。已鉴定出两种类型（A和B）的EBV，它们在编码转化相关抗原爱泼斯坦-巴尔核抗原2（EBNA 2）的基因组的BamH1 WYH区域内显示出DNA序列差异（参考文献4）。为了确定EBNA 2在T细胞识别中的功能，我们比较了EBV特异性细胞毒性T细胞克隆区分由A型或B型病毒转化的自体B淋巴细胞的能力。我们现在已经分离出了既能识别自体A型又不能识别B型转化淋巴母细胞系的CD4和CD8细胞毒性T细胞克隆，从而首次证明EBV特异性T细胞识别可以由EBNA 2介导。由于这种抗原在伯基特淋巴瘤中不表达，这一发现解释了EBV特异性T细胞监视未能消除肿瘤的原因。
