Cancer Research UK scientists have revealed how a dormant virus triggers a type of cancer found in young people, according to research published in PLoS Pathogens.
Burkitt's lymphoma - a type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma - affects around 200 young adults aged between 13 and 24 each year in the UK and is more common in children living in equatorial Africa.
The cancer is triggered by a genetic accident in cells of the immune system, called B lymphocytes.
But once that accident has happened, the chances of the cancer developing are greatly increased if those same cells are infected with a common virus, called the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV).
Scientists at the University of Birmingham have now identified a subset of Burkitt's lymphomas in which EBV triggers a viral protein that keeps the tumour cells alive.
Interestingly, this EBV protein behaves like a cellular protein, called bcl2, whose job is to keep normal cells alive.
The virus' ability to mimic the cell's own bcl2 appears to be an important factor in the development of Burkitt's lymphoma.
Professor Alan Rickinson, lead author based at Cancer Research UK's Institute for Cancer Studies at the University of Birmingham, said: "EBV is carried by most of us as a 'dormant' virus - but in a very small proportion of people it can have devastating effects. Precisely how EBV helps to cause Burkitt's lymphoma has remained a mystery.