The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a widespread herpes virus that infects more than 90 per cent of the worldwide human population.
After primary infection, EBV persists for life in the infected human host in a state of latency. In healthy individuals, the immune system is able to control latent EBV infection.
If, however, the immune system is suppressed, e.g. by AIDS or following transplantation, EBV can reactivate and cause the development of malignant tumours. These EBV-positive tumours can be treated by the infusion of immune cells (T cells) that are specific for components of the virus (antigens). An elegant and quick method developed by a Clinical Cooperation Group of the GSF – Research Center for Environment and Health and the Children’s Hospital of the University of Technology, Munich (TUM), helps to identify such targets of attack. The trick: bacteria are first genetically modified to produce all EBV proteins. With the help of T cells which are known to be EBV-specific, a test is conducted to identify those EBV proteins that act as antigens.
EBV-specific, cytotoxic and helper T cells have been successfully used to treat EBV-associated tumours, but it remained unknown which antigens the T cells attack. Therefore, T cells for immunotherapy had to be generated using laborious and tedious methods. "So far, the generation of EBV-specific T cells has taken two to three months, which is too long for many immunosuppressed patients with EBV-associated complications. Apart from that, the production is too complicated and too expensive as to perform it for each patient prophylactically,” says PD Dr. Uta Behrends, the head of the Clinical Cooperation Group Paediatric Tumour Immunology, “if the relevant EBV-antigens were known, the treatment could ideally be available within a few days.”