Peripheral blood lymphocytes express recombination-activating genes 1 and 2 during Epstein-Barr virus-induced

Hans-Joachim Wagner1, Rona S Scott, Dedra Buchwald

  • 1Center for Molecular and Tumor Virology, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Shreveport 71130, USA.

Implicit in the persistence of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in B lymphocytes is the successful circumvention of ongoing cell selection for competence of B cell receptors (BCRs). Because the EBV infection of B cells in vitro induces enzymatic machinery that is responsible for secondary immunoglobulin gene rearrangement, we examined the expression of the recombination-activating genes (RAGs) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 26 patients with infectious mononucleosis (IM). RAG1 and/or RAG2 RNA was detected in PBMCs from 42% of patients with IM but not from healthy control subjects. EBV may usurp the cellular mechanism that diversifies the BCR, to guarantee a level of survival signaling sufficient for its own persistence.

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