Review Article
Epstein-Barr Virus as a Promising Immunotherapeutic Target for Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Treatment
Table 1
Pathogenic proteins contributing to EBV-associated NPC.
| EBV target | Protumourigenic function | References |
| Latent proteins |
| LMP1 | Promoting interferon regulatory factor-7 (IRF-7) mediated angiogenesis and cell growth | [21] | Inducing cancer stem-like cells in NPC | [22] | Inducing tumour-promoting inflammation through NF-kB pathway | [23] | Promoting expression of antiapoptotic proteins and inactivating proapoptotic proteins | [23] | Stimulating cell growth by upregulating growth factor receptors (e.g., c-Met) | [24] |
| LMP2A | Inducing cancer stem-like properties by activating Hedgehog signalling pathway | [22] | Promoting cancer cell migration and invasion that leads to metastasis | [25, 26] | Inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and enhancing side-population cells | [7] | Activating PI3 K-AKT pathway to inhibit cellular differentiation and promote cancer cell survival | [27] | Counteracting inhibitory and proapoptotic effects of TGF-B1 through PI3 K-AKT pathway | [28] | Modulating mTOR pathway for cell survival and proliferation | [29] |
| EBNA1 | Maintaining stable number of EBV genomes in infected cells | [5] | Inducing genomic instability | [30] | Reducing p53 levels and promoting cell survival | [31] | Suppressing TGF-B1 signalling and promoting oncogenesis | [32] | Inducing cellular DNA damage | [33] |
| Lytic proteins |
| Zta | Induction of IL-8 | [34] | BGLF5/DNase | Inducing genomic instability | [35] | BALF3 | Inducing genomic instability | [36] | BARF | Increasing cell proliferation rate | [37] |
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