Biochemical Approaches to Detection of Epstein-Barr Virus in Human Tumors

The appl icat ion of biochemical studies for the detection of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-DNA in human tumor cells is discussed. These studies resulted in the consistent demonstration of viral nucleic acid in African Burkitt 's lymphoma biopsies and in epithel ial tumor cells of nasopharyngeal carcinomas. The viral DNA resides within those cells regularly in mult iple copies per cell. Besides these tumors our group detected signi f icant concentrat ions of EBV-DNA in a German lymphoma patient revealing histological characteristics of Burkit t 's lymphoma. Moreover, virus DNA was also found in a patient suffering from immunoblast ic lymphadenopathy. More than 50 addit ional B-cell lymphomas and more than 40 biopsies from patients with Hodgkin's disease did not contain detectable amounts of EBV-DNA when tested by nucleic acid hybridizat ion. A tentative scheme of EBV-induced pathogenesis is discussed.