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Neutralizing EBV‐specific IgA in throat washings of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients
Author(s) -
Desgranges C.,
DeThé G.,
Ho J. H. C.,
Ellouz R.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/ijc.2910190506
Subject(s) - nasopharyngeal carcinoma , throat , antibody , virus , mononucleosis , lymphoma , epstein–barr virus , immunoglobulin a , medicine , carcinoma , pathology , immunology , virology , immunoglobulin g , anatomy , radiation therapy
Throat washings from 26 nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients from Hong Kong and Tunisia were studied for the presence of transforming EBV. Only six (23%) were found positive which led to the hypothesis of a neutralizing factor in such salivas. The search for EBV‐specific antibodies showed that NPC saliva contained neutralizing VCA and EA IgA (54 and 27% respectively) and VCA and EA IgG (73 and 54% respectively). Both transforming and non‐transforming throat washings contained virus particles as visualized by electron microscopy, but in non‐transforming salivas (containing IgA and IgG) the particles were found to be clumped. Comparative study of throat washings from patients with Burkitt's lymphoma (BL), infectious mononucleosis (IM), immunodeficiencies, other cancers, and healthy subjects showed that IgA were restricted to NPC cases.