Comparative studies of Epstein Barr virus strains from Ghana and the United States.
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Date
1976
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International Journal of Cancer
Abstract
A high incidence of oropharyngeal excretion of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has been observed in African children with Burkitts lymphoma (BL) (48%) and matched controls (45%). This compares with an incidence of 77% in American patients with infectious mononucleosis (IM) and 13% in age-matched controls. Cross-neutralization tests between EBV strains derived from BL and IM patients and their sera failed to detect differences in the major neutralizing antigenic components. Cord-blood lymphocytes transformed by American EBV expressed only early viral functions (EBV nuclear and soluble complement-fixing antigens) and produced no detectable transforming activity. By contrast, cord-blood lymphocytes transformed by African EBV strains contained 0.2-0.3% of cells with EBV capsid and early antigen and produced EBV with transforming activity. These cells contained twice as many copies of EBV homologous DNA as the cells tranformed by American EBV strains.
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Gerber, P., Nkrumah, F. K., Pritchett, R., & Kief, E. (1976). Comparative studies of epstein barr virus strains from Ghana and the united states. International Journal of Cancer, 17(1), 71-81.