On the dynamics of acute EBV infection and the pathogenesis of infectious mononucleosis.

ABSTRACT: Memory B cells latently infected with Epstein-Barr virus (mB(Lats)) in the blood disappear rapidly on presentation with acute symptomatic primary infection (acute infectious mononucleosis [AIM]). They undergo a simple exponential decay (average half-life: 7.5 +/- 3.7 days) similar to that of normal memory B cells. The cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) response to immediate early (IE) lytic antigens (CTL(IEs)) also decays over this time period, but no such correlation was observed for the CTL response to lytic or latent antigens or to the levels of virions shed into saliva. We have estimated the average half-life of CTL(IEs) to be 73 (+/- 23) days. We propose that cycles of infection and reactivation occur in the initial stages of infection that produce high levels of mB(Lats) in the circulation

SUBMITTER: Hadinoto V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2214734 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature