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Updated: Feb 28, 2026

Isolation and Quantification of Epstein-Barr Virus from the P3HR1 Cell Line
Published on: September 28, 2022
Genetics and Molecular Biology of Epstein-Barr Virus-Encoded BART MicroRNA: A Paradigm for Viral Modulation of Host
1Clinical Faculty Yale School of Medicine and Keren LLC, 488 Norton Parkway, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.
Abstract:
Epstein-Barr virus, a ubiquitous human herpesvirus, is associated through epidemiologic evidence with common autoimmune syndromes and cancers. However, specific genetic mechanisms of pathogenesis have been difficult to identify. In this review, the author summarizes evidence that recently discovered noncoding RNAs termed microRNA encoded by Epstein-Barr virus BARF (BamHI A right frame) termed BART (BamHI A right transcripts) are modulators of human immune response genes and genome stability in infected and bystander cells. BART expression is apparently regulated by complex feedback loops with the host immune response regulatory NF-κB transcription factors. EBV-encoded BZLF-1 (ZEBRA) protein could also regulate BART since ZEBRA contains a terminal region similar to ankyrin proteins such as IκBα that regulate host NF-κB. BALF-2 (BamHI A left frame transcript), a viral homologue of the immunoglobulin and T cell receptor gene recombinase RAG-1 (recombination-activating gene-1), may also be coregulated with BART since BALF-2 regulatory sequences are located near the BART locus. Viral-encoded microRNA and viral mRNA transferred to bystander cells through vesicles, defective viral particles, or other mechanisms suggest a new paradigm in which bystander or hit-and-run mechanisms enable the virus to transiently or chronically alter human immune response genes as well as the stability of the human genome.
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