Association between Antibody Responses to Epstein-Barr Virus Glycoproteins, Neutralization of Infectivity, and the Risk of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma
Qian‐Ying Zhu, Xiang‐Wei Kong, Cong Sun, Shang-Hang Xie, Allan Hildesheim, Su‐Mei Cao, Mu‐Sheng Zeng
Abstract
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a human oncogenic gammaherpesvirus that infects over 90% of humans in the world and is causally associated with a spectrum of epithelial and B-cell malignancies such as nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). A prophylactic vaccine against EBV is called for, but no approved vaccine is available yet. Therefore, EBV remains a major public health concern. To facilitate novel vaccines and therapeutics for NPC, it is of great importance to explore the impact of humoral immune response to EBV glycoproteins before the development of NPC. Therefore, in this study, we systematically assessed the correlation between antiglycoprotein antibody levels, neutralization of EBV infectivity, and the risk of NPC development. These results provide valuable information that will contribute to designing effective prevention and treatment strategies for EBV-related diseases such as NPC.