Detection of EB Virus Gene Fragments in Paraffin-embedded NPC Tissue

To detect more sensibly Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNase gene fragments in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) tissue, a pair of optimized primers flanking 29% of EBV-DNase gene were designed. PCR results showed that EBV-DNase gene was detected in 145 of 149(97.32%) paraffin-embedded tissue samples with NPC and 2 of 155 (1.29%) cases in high risk population. DNA sequencing proved that DNA sequence of the PCR product agreed with BGLF5 reading frame from Genbank VO1555. Paraffin-embedded NPC samples stored for less than 1.5 years under room temperature and atmosphere conditions in South China were suitable for PCR detection.