How Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus stably transforms peripheral B cells towards lymphomagenesis.

ABSTRACT: Primary effusion lymphomas (PELs) are causally associated with Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and 86% of PELs are coinfected with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). Understanding how PELs develop has been impaired by the difficulty of infecting B cells with KSHV in vitro, and the inability of KSHV to transform them. We show that EBV supports an optimal coinfection of 2.5% of peripheral B cells by KSHV. This coinfection requires 1 or more transforming genes of EBV but not entry into KSHV's lytic cycle. We demonstrate that dually infected B cells are stably transformed in vitro and show that while both viruses can be maintained, different cells exhibit distinct, transformed properties. Transformed cells that grow to predominate in a culture express increased levels of most KSHV genes

SUBMITTER: Faure A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6697783 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature