ABSTRACT
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) was isolated in 1964 from a cell line established from an African Burkitt's lymphoma biopsy. This virus has been recognized as the etiologic agent of infectious mononucleosis, and has been implicated as the causative agent of nasopharyngeal carcinoma and African Burkitt's lymphoma. Bone marrow-derived lymphocytes (B-lymphocytes) are the natural host of the virus, for, apart from the fact that these cells possess receptors for the virus, they have been shown to carry the viral genome in vivo. The antigen was purified 85-fold from a nuclear pellet derived from either RPMI 4265 or Raji cells. EBV genome-positive cells possess a soluble complement-fixing antigen present in high-speed centrifugation supernatants of extracts from these cells. While the presence of Epstein-Barr virus-determined nuclear antigen in cells may not necessarily result in transformation, its early appearance after EBV infection, prior to cellular DNA synthesis, and its association with the chromatin suggest that it may play an essential role in the transformation event.
