Molecular diagnosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a review.

The various antigen complexes of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) are broadly classified as the viral capsid antigen (VCA), diffuse early antigen (EA-D), restricted early antigen (EA-R), membrane antigen (MA) and the Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen (EBNA). The different EBV-related diseases may be differentiated according to the reactivity of these different classes of antibodies towards the various classes of antigen complexes. However, with the recent development of molecular biology, it is now known that the individual polypeptides of the different EBV antigen complexes can be used as serological markers for the detection of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Among the useful serological markers which have been used in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of NPC are the gp125 from the VCA complex (IgA), pp58 from the EA-D complex (IgG), ribonucleotide reductase (IgG and IgA), DNase (IgA) and thymidine kinase (IgA) from the EA-R complex, gp 250/200 from the MA complex (IgA) and the ZEBRA antigen (IgA).