Inhibitory NKG2A⁺ and absent activating NKG2C⁺ NK cell responses are associated with the development of EBV⁺ lymphomas.

ABSTRACT: Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a ubiquitous herpesvirus, which infects over 90% of the adult human population worldwide. After primary infections, EBV is recurrently reactivating in most adult individuals. It is, however, unclear, why these EBV reactivations progress to EBV⁺ Hodgkin (EBV⁺HL) or non-Hodgkin lymphomas (EBV⁺nHL) only in a minority of EBV-infected individuals. The EBV LMP-1 protein encodes for a highly polymorphic peptide, which upregulates the immunomodulatory HLA-E in EBV-infected cells, thereby stimulating the inhibitory NKG2A-, but also the activating NKG2C-receptor on natural killer (NK) cells. Using a genetic-association approach and functional NK cell analyses, we now investigated, whether these HLA-E-restricted immune responses impact the

SUBMITTER: Vietzen H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10324562 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature