From Anti-EBV Immune Responses to the EBV Diseasome via Cross-reactivity

Darja Kanduc1, Yehuda Shoenfeld2,3

  • 1Department of Biosciences, Biotechnologies, and Biopharmaceutics, University of Bari, Bari, Italy.

Global Medical Genetics
|September 17, 2020
PubMed

Sequence analyses highlight a massive peptide sharing between immunoreactive Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) epitopes and human proteins that-when mutated, deficient or improperly functioning-associate with tumorigenesis, diabetes, lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and immunodeficiencies, among others. Peptide commonality appears to be the molecular platform capable of linking EBV infection to the vast EBV-associated diseasome via cross-reactivity and questions the hypothesis of the "negative selection" of self-reactive lymphocytes. Of utmost importance, this study warns that using entire antigens in anti-EBV immunotherapies can associate with autoimmune manifestations and further supports the concept of peptide uniqueness for designing safe and effective anti-EBV immunotherapies.

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