[Recent aspects of Epstein-Barr virus infections]

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is regularly associated with Burkitt's lymphoma (nasopharyngeal carcinoma) and has been extensively documented as causal in infectious mononucleosis. Recently it has become evident that this virus is associated or handled differently in patients with a variety of immunological disorders. If the mechanisms that normally limit the effects of EBV infection are blunted, as in rheumatoid arthritis, antibody responses to EBV induced cellular antigens are significantly higher than in healthy individuals. In the host with more profound immunosuppression a polyclonal B cell lymphoproliferation takes place which may progress to the monoclonal proliferation of true lymphoma.