Prevalence of Taiwan variant of Epstein-Barr virus in throat washings from patients with head and neck tumors in Taiwan

Abstract

The prevalence of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) Taiwan variant was investigated in the throat washing (A1W) samples from patients with head and neck tumors, persons with nonmalignant diseases, and healthy adults in Taiwan. By using the EBV (BNLF-1 gene)-specific primers and PCR, the EBV latent membrane protein gene BNLF-1 was detected in 91 (61%,b) of the 150 TW samples from patients with tumors, including 25 (78%) of 32 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma and 66 (56%o) of 118 other patients with head and neck tumors. The TW samples from the 26 patients with nonmalignant tumors and 53 healthy adults were also examined. Approximately 47% of these samples were positive for the EBV gene. The PCR products of the BNLF-1 gene were then subjected to XhoI digestion. Sixby-eight of 91 PCR products (75%) showed the loss of the XhoI site, which indicated the presence ofa Taiwan strain ofEBV in patients with tumors. The DNA sequence of the BNLF-1 gene of the Taiwan variant revealed that the loss of the XhoI site was due to a nucleotide change from a G to a T at position 169,426 in comparison with the sequence of prototype EBV B95-8 cells. Furthermore, the Taiwan strain appeared significantly more frequently in the TWs and tissue samples from patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (88%; P < 0.001) and laryngeal carcinoma (80%o; P < 0.02) than in those samples from healthy adults (about 40o). These data indicate that a Taiwan variant of EBV may be closely associated with head and neck tumors and suggest that this variant may be important in the pathogenesis of head and neck tumors.

Epstein-Barr virus latent membrane protein-1 (LMP-1) 30-bp deletion and Xho I-loss is associated with type III nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Malaysia

“…This polymorphism was also present in NPC from Alaska and in some of the NPC samples from Caucasian Americans but was absent in NPC and healthy controls in Africa [ 19 , 37 ]. The loss of an Xho I restriction site has been associated with Chinese NPC, and it has been considered to be a specific tumour marker in NPC biopsies and throat washes [ 18 , 21 , 27 , 38 ]. However, to date, little is known about the efficiency of malignant transformation by this variant.…”

Epstein–Barr virus strains and variations: Geographic or disease‐specific variants?

“…The XhoI loss is commonly reported in Southern Asiatic populations where the vast majority of NPC cases harbored this variation [Khanim et al, 1996;Han et al, 2003;See et al, 2008;Feederle et al, 2015]. Literature refers that the loss of a XhoI restriction site might be considered a specific tumor marker for NPC [Hu et al, 1991;Chen et al, 1992;Jeng et al, 1994;Chang et al, 1995;Tan et al, 2003;See et al, 2008], and in fact, a recent meta-analysis confirmed that there is a strong association between the XhoI-loss and NPC development, especially in Asia [da Costa et al, 2015]. Yet, this variation is almost absent in NPC cases from North of Africa [Bouzid et al, 1994;Henry et al, 2001;Ayadi et al, 2007].…”

“…Furthermore, to date, very little is known about the biological role of this variant in the transformation efficiency of EBV [See et al, 2008]. Cheung et al [1996] China NPC 5 5 (100) Chang et al [1995] Taiwan NPC 48 48 (100) Bouzid et al [1994] North Africa (region) NPC 13 1 (7.7) Jeng et al [1994] Taiwan NPC 32 25 (78.1) Abdel-Hamid et al [1992] Multicenter NPC 51 33 (64.7) Hu et al [1991] Multicenter NPC 56 38 (67.9) aHSCT, allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplanted; HSNCC, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; NPC, nasopharyngeal carcinoma; GC, gastric carcinoma; IM, infectious mononucleosis; HL, Hodgkin lymphoma; LELC, lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma.…”

Screening nasopharyngeal carcinoma by detection of the latent membrane protein 1 (LMP‐1) gene with nasopharyngeal swabs

“…Detection of EBV genomic DNA in a nasopharyngeal biopsy specimen may indicate the presence of NPC 9. It has been reported that 3 latent membrane proteins are expressed in NPC and that nearly all NPC tumor cells contain the EBV‐derived latent membrane protein 1 ( LMP‐1 ) gene 11, 12. LMP‐1 is a phosphoprotein in vivo 13.…”