EXPRESSION OF THE PROTEIN ENCODED BY EPSTEIN-BARR-VIRUS (EBV) BARF1 OPEN READING FRAME FROM A RECOMBINANT ADENOVIRUS SYSTEM

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has been associated with human cancers of lym phocytic or epithelial origin, but viral functions implied in oncogene sis are not yet clear. We previously reported the oncogenic transforma tion of rodent fibroblast and human B lymphocyte cell lines by the BAR F1 coding sequence from EBV. We more recently observed immortalizing e ffects of this gene on monkey kidney primary epithelial cells. Here we describe an efficient recombinant adenovirus expression system which allowed us to characterize BARF1 translation products, with the help o f rabbit polyclonal antibodies raised to the entire protein. The prese nt data demonstrate that BARF1 encodes a 31-33 kDa hydrophobic protein , linked to cell membranes though also recovered in the cytosol, and r ecognized by human sera from patients with various EBV-related patholo gies. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.