Role of EBER and BARF1 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) tumorigenesis

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-encoded small RNA (EBER) is the most abundant EBV viral transcript and is used as a target molecule to detect EBV-infected cells in tissues by in situ hybridization. EBER is expected to form double-stranded RNA-like structures. The results of the present study show that EBER contributes to oncogenesis by modulating innate immunity in patients with NPC and Burkett's lymphoma. BARF1 is a homolog of the human proto-oncogene c-fms and is expressed as a latent gene in NPC. Reconstitution of NPC-type EBV infection using NPC-derived cell lines shows that BARF1 contributes to the tumorigenicity of NPC cells.