THE 30-BP DELETION VARIANT OF EPSTEIN-BARR VIRUS-ENCODED LATENT MEMBRANE PROTEIN-1 PREVAILS IN ACUTE INFECTIOUS-MONONUCLEOSIS

To assess the frequency of malignancy-associated 30-bp deletion varian ts of the latent membrane protein 1 (LMP-I) in benign conditions, a co mparative sequence analysis was done using samples from 20 American ch ildren with acute infectious mononucleosis and 16 Swiss children with chronic tonsillar hyperplasia, The 30-bp deletion variant (LMP-l-del) was present in 66% of patients (12/20 with infectious mononucleosis an d 12/16 with tonsillar hyperplasia). Two additional patients had a 3-b p deletion and an inframe insertion of 18 nucleotides, respectively, A ll but 1 isolate had numerous nonsilent point mutations, These data id entify a hypervariable region within the C-terminus of LMP-I, in a dom ain required for maximal stimulation of NF-KB activity, These data dem onstrate that LMP-1-del variants are frequent in acute infectious mono nucleosis and tonsillar hyperplasia and identical to those observed in Epstein-Barr virus-associated AIDS-related lymphoma.