IN-SITU DETECTION OF LYTIC EPSTEIN-BARR-VIRUS INFECTION - EXPRESSION OF THE NOTI EARLY GENE AND VIRAL INTERLEUKIN-10 LATE GENE IN CLINICAL SPECIMENS

Riboprobes that detect two genes expressed only during productive infe ction were developed to characterize the clinical spectrum of Epstein- Barr virus (EBV) lytic infection and identify diseases that may be res ponsive to antiviral drug therapy. The NotI antisense probe hybridizes to tandem repeats in the abundant early lytic cycle BHLF1 mRNA. Trans cripts were detected in lytically infected cell lines, AIDS-associated oral hairy leukoplakia, bone marrow of a patient with virus-associate d hemophagocytic syndrome, and spleen of an AIDS patient but not in EB V-positive primary central nervous system lymphomas or in circulating EBV-infected B cells from a patient with acute infectious mononucleosi s. The viral (v) interleukin-10 (IL-10) probe hybridizes to the unique 5' end of the late lytic cycle BCRF1 mRNA, which encodes a protein ho mologous to the human cytokine IL-10. The vIL-10 probe detected transc ripts in lytically infected cell lines and within the differentiated l ayers of oral hairy leukoplakia.