Revisiting the Tissue Microenvironment of Infectious Mononucleosis: Identification of EBV Infection in T Cells and Deep Characterization of Immune Profiles.

ABSTRACT: To aid understanding of primary EBV infection, we have performed an in depth analysis of EBV-infected cells and of local immune cells in tonsils from infectious mononucleosis (IM) patients. We show that EBV is present in approximately 50% of B-cells showing heterogeneous patterns of latent viral gene expression probably reflecting different stages of infection. While the vast majority of EBV+ cells are B-cells, around 9% express T-cell antigens, with a predominance of CD8+ over CD4+ cells. PD-L1 was expressed by a median of 14% of EBV+ cells. The numbers of EBER+PD-L1+ cells were directly correlated with the numbers of EBER+CD3+ and EBER+CD8+ cells suggesting a possible role for PD-L1 in EBV infection of T-cells. The microenvironment of IM tonsils was characterized by a predominance of M1-

SUBMITTER: Barros MHM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6391352 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature