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The differentiated form of nasopharyngeal carcinoma contains epstein‐barr virus DNA
Author(s) -
RaabTraub Nancy,
Flynn Kathy,
Pagano Joseph,
Pearson Gary,
Huang Andrew,
Levine Paul,
Lanier Anne
Publication year - 1987
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.2910390106
Subject(s) - nasopharyngeal carcinoma , biology , virus , dna , epstein–barr virus , recombinant dna , southern blot , virology , microbiology and biotechnology , herpesviridae , gene , viral disease , genetics , medicine , radiation therapy
Immunologic studies of Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) have implicated EBV in undifferentiated and partially differentiated, non‐keratinizing nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Patients with the well‐differentiated, keratinizing form of NPC have EBV serologic patterns similar to those of control populations. In addition, viral DNA has not been detected in the differentiated tumors using viral cRNA probes to DNA immobilized on filters. In this study we have tested for EBV DNA using recombinant DNA probes to Southern blots of DNA from 33 NPC specimens. The 24 undifferentiated and 4 partially differentiated specimens generally contained a relatively high number of EBV genome equivalents, while the 5 well‐differentiated NPC all contained detectable EBV, but at low copy number. The viral DNA from one of the well‐differentiated specimens was cloned into a cosmid vector. Five recombinant clones representing the fused viral termini were obtained, indicating the presence of episomal, intracellular DNA in the tumor. These findings indicate that all histologic subsets of NPC contain EBV DNA.