Recent advances on Epstein Barr virus and associated diseases.

This is by far the most active area of research on EBV EBV infection immortalises B-lymphocytes resulting in a proliferating lymphoblastoid cell line of transformed B-cells with EBV in 'latency'. During latency, EBV DNA and latent proteins (EBV nuclear proteins, latent membrane protein, terminal protein) are detectable intracellularly. At any one time, only a very small proportion of infected cells progress from latent to virus replicative cycle, resulting in the production of virus structural proteins-viral capsid antigen (VCA), early antigen complex (EA), membrane antigen (MA)and virus particles. Research on the molecular biology of EBV latency is focused on: