Vol. 31, No. 2, 2009 (June)
	Content

Nuclear receptors and their role in Epstein — Barr virus induced B cell transformation

S.P. Yenamandra^{1, 2,} G. Klein¹, E. Kashuba^{1, 2, 3,}

¹Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology (MTC), Karolinska Institute, Stockholm S17177, Sweden ²Center for Integrative Recognition in the Immune System (IRIS), Karolinska Institute, Stockholm S17177, Sweden ³R.E. Kavetsky Institute of Experimental Pathology, Oncology and Radiobiology NAS of Ukraine, Kyiv 03022, Ukraine

Abstract. Epstein — Barr virus (EBV) is a lymphotropic virus that infects more than 90% of the human population, and targets B cells for infection. Infection of human B cells leads to the malignant transformation and eventual immortalization. In latency III infection six EBV-encoded nuclear antigens (EBNAs) and three latent membrane proteins (LMPs) are expressed in the transformed cells that can grow as a lymphoblastoid cell lines in vitro. These proteins hijack the normal B cell growth pathways by activating the constitutive growth promotion and external survival signals. We have determined a set of the nuclear receptors that are up- (and down-) regulated in the latency III infected cells at the mRNA level. In the present paper we discussed the possible role of these receptors in B cell transformation upon EBV infection based on the literature data.

Key Words: cell transformation, EBV, EBNA, expression profiling, microarray, nuclear receptor

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