The Epstein-Barr Virus Encoded BART miRNAs Potentiate Tumor Growth In Vivo

PLoS Pathogens

Leah Leahy¹  Pamela Smith¹  David A. Thorley-Lawson²  Jin Qiu² 

[1] Department of Hematology/Oncology, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America;Department of Pathology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

关键词: MicroRNAs;    Nasopharyngeal carcinoma;    Metastasis;    Carcinomas;    Apoptosis;    Epstein-Barr virus;    Metastatic tumors;    Mouse models;   

DOI  :  10.1371/journal.ppat.1004561

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Public Library of Science

【 摘 要 】

The human herpes virus Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) latently infects and drives the proliferation of B lymphocytes in vitro and is associated with several forms of lymphoma and carcinoma in vivo. The virus encodes ~30 miRNAs in the BART region, the function of most of which remains elusive. Here we have used a new mouse xenograft model of EBV driven carcinomagenesis to demonstrate that the BART miRNAs potentiate tumor growth and development in vivo. No effect was seen on invasion or metastasis, and the growth promoting activity was not seen in vitro. In vivo tumor growth was not associated with the expression of specific BART miRNAs but with up regulation of all the BART miRNAs, consistent with previous observations that all the BART miRNAs are highly expressed in all of the EBV associated cancers. Based on these observations, we suggest that deregulated expression of the BART miRNAs potentiates tumor growth and represents a general mechanism behind EBV associated oncogenesis.

【 授权许可】

CC BY