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Epstein–Barr virus is an agent of genomic instability

A protein from Epstein–Barr virus called EBNA1 has been shown to bind to and break human chromosome 11, producing instability in the genome that might cause a predisposition to cancer.
  1. Lori Frappier

    1. Lori Frappier is in the Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1M1, Canada.

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Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) is a common herpesvirus that is also associated with several types of cancer, including lymphomas, nasopharyngeal carcinomas and gastric carcinomas1. How exactly the virus affects the development of these cancers is unclear, but tumour cells are known to be derived from infected cells that express a small subset of EBV proteins. In fact, the only viral protein that is expressed in all types of EBV-related cancer is Epstein–Barr nuclear antigen 1 (EBNA1), which binds to specific sequences in the viral DNA, allowing it to persist and replicate. The possibility that this protein contributes directly to cancer has long been proposed and disputed2.Writing inNature,李et al.3suggest how it might do so — by binding to a specific region on human chromosome 11 and triggering its breakage, thereby inducing genomic instability.

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Nature616, 441-442 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00936-y

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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