A major EBNA1 variant from Asian EBV isolates shows enhanced transcriptional activity compared to prototype B95.8

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1) has an instrumental role in maintaining EBV latent infection by controlling EBV episome replication and regulating viral transcription. It is a ubiquitously expressed protein during latent viral infection and in EBV-associated tumors. The EBNA1 C-terminus interacts functionally with the Qp and Cp that control viral gene expression in latency I/II and III, respectively. EBNA1 has been classified into five subtypes due to sequence variation in the DNA-interacting C-terminus. By DNA sequence analysis of its C-terminus, we detected a main sub-variant (V-val-v1) of EBNA1 with valine located in both positions 487 and 528 from matched samples including NPC biopsies and peripheral blood taken from Vietnamese (9), Chinese (12) NPC patients and healthy donors (5). In the FR-region of oriP from nine NPC biopsies from Vietnam we also frequently found substitutions, deletions and variable numbers of repeats. Using a luciferase reporter system, EBNA1 and FR both derived from Asian isolates induced higher transcriptional activity than those from B95-8 virus.