Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA-1) is essential for replication of episomal EBV DNAs and maintenance of latency. Multifunctional EBNA-1 is phosphorylated, but the significance of EBNA-1 phosphorylation is not known. Here, we examined the effects on nuclear translocation of Ser phosphorylation of the EBNA-1 nuclear localization signal (NLS) sequence, 379Lys-Arg-Pro-Arg-Ser-Pro-Ser-Ser386. We found that Lys379Ala and Arg380Ala substitutions greatly reduced nuclear transport and steady-state levels of green fluorescent protein (GFP)-EBNA1, whereas Pro381Ala, Arg382Ala, Pro384Ala, and Glu378Ala substitutions did not. Microinjection of modified EBNA-1 NLS peptide-inserted proteins and NLS peptides cross-linked to bovine serum albumin (BSA) showed that Ala substitution for three NLS Ser residues reduced the efficiency of nuclear import. Similar microinjection analyses demonstrated that phosphorylation of Ser385 accelerated the rate of nuclear import, but phosphorylation of Ser383 and Ser386 reduced it. However, transfection analyses of GFP-EBNA1 mutants with the Ser-to-Ala substitution causing reduced nuclear import efficiency did not result in a decrease in the nuclear accumulation level of EBNA-1. The results suggest dynamic nuclear transport control of phosphorylated EBNA-1 proteins, although the nuclear localization level of EBNA-1 that binds to cellular chromosomes and chromatin seems unchanged. The karyopherin ␣ NPI-1 (importin ␣5), a nuclear import adaptor, bound more strongly to Ser385-phosphorylated NLS than to any other phosphorylated or nonphosphorylated forms. Rch1 (importin ␣1) bound only weakly and Qip1 (importin ␣3) did not bind to the Ser385-phosphorylated NLS. These findings suggest that the amino-terminal 379Lys-Arg380 is essential for the EBNA-1 NLS and that Ser385 phosphorylation up-regulates nuclear transport efficiency of EBNA-1 by increasing its binding affinity to NPI-1, while phosphorylation of Ser386 and Ser383 down-regulates it.Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA-1) is essential for the replication of EBV plasmid DNAs in latently infected cells and is also a transcriptional transactivator (4,41,45,46,54). It has recently been suggested that EBNA-1 enhances B-cell growth and transformation and is critical for the continued survival of EBV-associated Burkitt's lymphoma cells (20,24,40). EBNA-1 is the only EBV-encoded protein expressed in all types of latently infected cells (54) and represents one of the most important viral antigens for seroepidemiologic studies and serodiagnostic tests (21,23,54,64). EBNA-1 proteins in the form of homodimers (3,13,17) are highly localized in the nucleus (19,28,36,51) and bind in a sequence-specific manner to the EBV DNA oriP region (1,2,17,27,44,45), cellular chromosomes/chromatin (29, 48), and cellular replication foci (31). EBNA-1 binding to mitotic cellular chromosomes is widely considered to enable the partition of de novosynthesized EBV episomal DNAs to daughter cells (29,48). EBNA-1 proteins are phosphorylated at Ser resid...

SummaryAssociations of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and autoimmune diseases have been hypothesized. We have analysed IgG antibodies to EBV nuclear antigen (EBNA)-2 in sera from Japanese patients with autoimmune systemic connective tissue diseases (CTD), exemplified by systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), primary Sjögren's syndrome (SS), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic sclerosis (SSc) and secondary SS (classical CTDs complicated with SS). An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) which uses glutathione-Stransferase polypeptides fused to EBV nuclear antigen (EBNA)-2 and EBNA-1 was developed. Ratios of IgG antibody reactivity to whole IgG concentrations of sera were calculated to normalize EBNA-2 and EBNA-1 antibody levels to the hypergammaglobulinaemia that occurs in CTD. The ELISA optical density OD 450 readings of IgG antibodies to both the amino-terminal aa 1-116 of EBNA-2 and carboxyl-terminal aa 451-641 of EBNA-1 were elevated significantly in patients with SLE, primary SS, RA, SSc and secondary SS when compared to EBNA-1. The OD readings were divided by serum IgG concentrations to normalize for the hypergammaglobulinaemia. The specific levels of IgG antibodies to the amino-terminal region of EBNA-2 were elevated in patients with SLE, primary SS or RA, as well as those with secondary SS complicated with SLE or RA. The EBNA-2 amino-terminal region contains a polyproline tract and a proline-rich sequence and has considerable amino acid sequence homology with many cellular proline-rich proteins . High ratios of EBNA-2 aa 1-116 to EBNA-1 aa 451-641 IgG antibody levels which probably suggest reactivation of EBV latent infection were associated significantly with pulmonary involvement in SS patients. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the sequence similarity between the amino-terminal region of EBNA-2 and proline-rich cellular proteins is associated with pathogenesis in a subpopulation of CTD patients, possibly by the molecular mimicry-epitope shift mechanism.

The telomere repeat lengths of BL cell lines were quantified by measuring terminal restriction fragment (TRF). Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positive Namalwa, Raji, and EB-3 cell lines have long telomeres, i.e. TRFs 10-19 kbp, whereas the Daudi cell line, producing a transformation-defective EBV mutant, has TRFs approximately 2.2 kbp. EBV-negative BJAB and DG75 cell lines have short TRFs 3.9-5.4 kbp, shorter than the approximately 12 kbp TRFs in PBLs. Telomerase activities of these BL cell lines are similar. TRFs of non-BL lymphoma cell lines are 2.3-5.5 kbp. Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) studies of these cell lines showed remarkable heterogeneity of telomere size in chromosomes in the same BL cell. These results suggest that EBV-positive and EBV-negative BL cell lines have experienced various telomere dynamics.

Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) nuclear antigens 2 and 1 (EBNA-2 and EBNA-1, respectively) were studied using sera from healthy individuals of a population with a high incidence of asymptomatic primary EBV infections during infancy or childhood in Japan. Two CHO-K1 cell lines expressing EBNA-2 and EBNA-1 were used for anticomplement and indirect immunofluorescence assays. The positivity rate for EBNA-2 IgG rose in the 1-to 2-year age group, increased and remained at a plateau (ϳ45%) between 3 and 29 years of age (3-to 4-, 5-to 9-, 10-to 14-, and 15-to 29-year age groups), and then reached 98% by age 40 (>40-year age group). Both seropositivity for EBNA-1 and seropositivity for EBNAs in Raji cells (EBNA/Raji) were detected in the 1-to 2-year age group, remained high, and finally reached 100% by age 40. The geometric mean titer (GMT) of EBNA-2 IgG reached a plateau in the 5-to 9-and 10-to 14-year-old groups and remained elevated in the older age groups (15 to 29 and >40 years). The GMT of EBNA-1 IgGs increased to a plateau in the 1-to 2-year-old group and remained unchanged in the older age groups. The GMT of EBNA/Raji IgGs also reached a plateau in the 1-to 2-year-old group, remained level throughout the 3-to 14-year age groups, and decreased in the 15-to 29-year-olds. EBNA-2 IgGs emerged earlier than EBNA-1 IgGs in 8 of 10 patients with infectious mononucleosis, who were between 1 and 27 years old, and declined with time in three of eight cases. These results suggest that EBNA-2 IgG antibodies evoked in young children by asymptomatic primary EBV infections remain elevated throughout life, probably because of reactivation of latent and/or exogenous EBV superinfection.