Eradication of Epstein-Barr virus by allogeneic bone marrow transplantation: implications for sites of viral latency.

Wild-type strains of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) can be distinguished on the basis of variations in the molecular weight of virus-encoded, growth transformation-associated proteins. This approach was used to study the persistence of EBV in two seropositive recipients of allogeneic bone marrow transplants. The first patient received marrow from her EBV-seronegative brother, became EBV seronegative after grafting, and remained so for greater than 1200 days. Subsequently, she became infected with a new EBV strain that differed from her pretransplant strain but was indistinguishable from the virus isolated from her husband. The second patient received marrow from his EBV-seropositive brother. This patient showed only a transient decrease in IgG antibodies to EBV capsid antigen. His pretransplant strain differed from the virus of his donor. On days 252 and 915 after transplantation, lymphoblastoid cell lines were grown from the peripheral blood of the patient and were found to carry exclusively the virus of the donor. These results suggest that the latently EBV-infected host cells reside in a cellular compartment that can be destroyed by graft-versus-host reactivity, irradiation, or cytotoxic drugs. Hemopoietic tissue is the most likely candidate.