The Immunology of Epstein-Barr Virus-Induced Disease

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is usually acquired silently early in life and carried thereafter as an asymptomatic infection of the B lymphoid system. However, many circumstances disturb the delicate EBV-host balance and cause the virus to display its pathogenic potential. Thus, primary infection in adol...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annual review of immunology 2015-03, Vol.33 (1), p.787-821
Main Authors: Taylor, Graham S, Long, Heather M, Brooks, Jill M, Rickinson, Alan B, Hislop, Andrew D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptive Immunity
Animals
autoimmunity
Carrier State
Epstein-Barr virus
Epstein-Barr Virus Infections - complications
Epstein-Barr Virus Infections - diagnosis
Epstein-Barr Virus Infections - immunology
Epstein-Barr Virus Infections - virology
Herpesvirus 4, Human - immunology
Herpesvirus 4, Human - physiology
Humans
Immunity, Innate
Immunocompromised Host
immunodeficiency
Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes - etiology
immunotherapy
innate immunity
Lymphoproliferative Disorders - etiology
malignancy
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Summary:Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is usually acquired silently early in life and carried thereafter as an asymptomatic infection of the B lymphoid system. However, many circumstances disturb the delicate EBV-host balance and cause the virus to display its pathogenic potential. Thus, primary infection in adolescence can manifest as infectious mononucleosis (IM), as a fatal illness that magnifies the immunopathology of IM in boys with the X-linked lymphoproliferative disease trait, and as a chronic active disease leading to life-threatening hemophagocytosis in rare cases of T or natural killer (NK) cell infection. Patients with primary immunodeficiencies affecting the NK and or T cell systems, as well as immunosuppressed transplant recipients, handle EBV infections poorly, and many are at increased risk of virus-driven B-lymphoproliferative disease. By contrast, a range of other EBV-positive malignancies of lymphoid or epithelial origin arise in individuals with seemingly intact immune systems through mechanisms that remain to be understood.
ISSN:0732-0582
1545-3278
DOI:10.1146/annurev-immunol-032414-112326