Aberrant expression of epstein-barr virus genes in Juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disorder which causes more severe clinical manifestations in juveniles than in adults. Many studies have shown the contribution of Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) infection to the development of SLE. In this study, we investigated the role of EBV genes in the pathogenesis of SLE in juvenile patients. Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells (PBMCs) were isolated from 20 patients with SLE and 12 healthy donors. Supernatant of EBV secreting cells was obtained from JSLE patients who were diagnosed as EBV-IgG/IgM positive by ELISA. PBMCs and the cell supernatant were co-cultured, followed by extracting RNAs from the PBMCs before and after the culturing, and RT-PCR was performed to determine the expression of EBV genes. Among all the EBV latent and lytic genes, LMP1 is the only gene showed a significant higher expression rate and expression level for the juvenile SLE patients. Co-culturing the PBMCs with EBV secreting cell supernatant reactivated the infected EBV by initiating the expression of EBNA1 and BLLF1 gene. These data indicated the aberrant expression of EBV genes in JSLE patients may be involved in the pathogenesis of JSLE, and that the EBNA1 and BLLF1 genes may be the initiation of EBV entering the lytic phase.