Sensitizing Burkitt lymphoma to EBV-CTLs

Abstract

In this issue of Blood, Dalton et al1 show that epigenetic therapy with decitabine can upregulate immunogenic Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) antigens on Burkitt lymphoma (BL) that normally only express the less immunogenic antigen EBV nuclear antigen-1 (EBNA-1), rendering them sensitive to EBVspecific cells. The authors hypothesized that inducing expression of the more immunogenic latent viral antigens expressed in EBV type II and III latency tumors, such as posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD), on EBV I latency tumors like BL, could improve the activity of virus-directed immunotherapies against these tumors.