MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODIES DIRECTED AGAINST THE EPSTEIN-BARR VIRUS-ENCODEDNUCLEAR ANTIGEN-1 (EBNA1) - IMMUNOHISTOLOGIC DETECTION OF EBNA1 IN THE MALIGNANT-CELLS OF HODGKINS-DISEASE

Monoclonal antibodies directed against the Epstein-Barr virus nuclear protein 1 (EBNA1) were used to examine conventional paraffin sections from a series of EBV-associated lymphoproliferative disorders by immun ohistochemistry. The presence of latent EBV infection in tumor cells w as determined by in situ hybridization for the Epstein-Barr virus earl y RNAs (EBERs). Of those EBER-positive cases a total of 28 of 40 cases of Hodgkin's disease, 3 of 3 cases of Burkitt's lymphoma. and 8 of 8 cases of human immunodeficiency virus-associated cerebral B-cell lymph oma expressed detectable amounts of EBNA1. In the positive cases, expr ession was confined to the tumor cells. No reactivity was detected in EBV-negative cases of the above tumors or in 8 cases of EBV-negative c ases of large cell anaplastic non-Hodgkin lymphoma. This report provid es the first unequivocal evidence for the expression of the EBNA1 prot ein in the tumor cells of Hodgkin's disease and validates an important reagent with which to analyze the role of EBV in various virus-associ ated malignancies. (C) 1994 by The American Society of Hematology.