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Inflammation and Epstein-Barr Virus Infection Are Common Features of Myasthenia Gravis Thymus: Possible Roles in Pathogenesis
The thymus plays a major role in myasthenia gravis (MG). Our recent finding of a persistent Epstein-Barr (EBV) virus infection in some MG thymuses, combined with data showing that the thymus is in a proinflammatory state in most patients, supports a viral contribution to the pathogenesis of MG. Aim...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
SAGE-Hindawi Access to Research
2011
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3180177/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21961056 http://dx.doi.org/10.4061/2011/213092 |
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author | Cavalcante, Paola Maggi, Lorenzo Colleoni, Lara Caldara, Rosa Motta, Teresio Giardina, Carmelo Antozzi, Carlo Berrih-Aknin, Sonia Bernasconi, Pia Mantegazza, Renato |
author_facet | Cavalcante, Paola Maggi, Lorenzo Colleoni, Lara Caldara, Rosa Motta, Teresio Giardina, Carmelo Antozzi, Carlo Berrih-Aknin, Sonia Bernasconi, Pia Mantegazza, Renato |
author_sort | Cavalcante, Paola |
collection | PubMed |
description | The thymus plays a major role in myasthenia gravis (MG). Our recent finding of a persistent Epstein-Barr (EBV) virus infection in some MG thymuses, combined with data showing that the thymus is in a proinflammatory state in most patients, supports a viral contribution to the pathogenesis of MG. Aim of this study was to gain further evidence for intrathymic chronic inflammation and EBV infection in MG patients. Transcriptional profiling by low density array and real-time PCR showed overexpression of genes involved in inflammatory and immune response in MG thymuses. Real-time PCR for EBV genome, latent (EBER1, EBNA1, LMP1) and lytic (BZLF1) transcripts, and immunohistochemistry for LMP1 and BZLF1 proteins confirmed an active intrathymic EBV infection, further supporting the hypothesis that EBV might contribute to onset or perpetuation of the autoimmune response in MG. Altogether, our results support a role of inflammation and EBV infection as pathogenic features of MG thymus. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3180177 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2011 |
publisher | SAGE-Hindawi Access to Research |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-31801772011-09-29 Inflammation and Epstein-Barr Virus Infection Are Common Features of Myasthenia Gravis Thymus: Possible Roles in Pathogenesis Cavalcante, Paola Maggi, Lorenzo Colleoni, Lara Caldara, Rosa Motta, Teresio Giardina, Carmelo Antozzi, Carlo Berrih-Aknin, Sonia Bernasconi, Pia Mantegazza, Renato Autoimmune Dis Research Article The thymus plays a major role in myasthenia gravis (MG). Our recent finding of a persistent Epstein-Barr (EBV) virus infection in some MG thymuses, combined with data showing that the thymus is in a proinflammatory state in most patients, supports a viral contribution to the pathogenesis of MG. Aim of this study was to gain further evidence for intrathymic chronic inflammation and EBV infection in MG patients. Transcriptional profiling by low density array and real-time PCR showed overexpression of genes involved in inflammatory and immune response in MG thymuses. Real-time PCR for EBV genome, latent (EBER1, EBNA1, LMP1) and lytic (BZLF1) transcripts, and immunohistochemistry for LMP1 and BZLF1 proteins confirmed an active intrathymic EBV infection, further supporting the hypothesis that EBV might contribute to onset or perpetuation of the autoimmune response in MG. Altogether, our results support a role of inflammation and EBV infection as pathogenic features of MG thymus. SAGE-Hindawi Access to Research 2011 2011-09-26 /pmc/articles/PMC3180177/ /pubmed/21961056 http://dx.doi.org/10.4061/2011/213092 Text en Copyright © 2011 Paola Cavalcante et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Cavalcante, Paola Maggi, Lorenzo Colleoni, Lara Caldara, Rosa Motta, Teresio Giardina, Carmelo Antozzi, Carlo Berrih-Aknin, Sonia Bernasconi, Pia Mantegazza, Renato Inflammation and Epstein-Barr Virus Infection Are Common Features of Myasthenia Gravis Thymus: Possible Roles in Pathogenesis |
title | Inflammation and Epstein-Barr Virus Infection Are Common Features of Myasthenia Gravis Thymus: Possible Roles in Pathogenesis |
title_full | Inflammation and Epstein-Barr Virus Infection Are Common Features of Myasthenia Gravis Thymus: Possible Roles in Pathogenesis |
title_fullStr | Inflammation and Epstein-Barr Virus Infection Are Common Features of Myasthenia Gravis Thymus: Possible Roles in Pathogenesis |
title_full_unstemmed | Inflammation and Epstein-Barr Virus Infection Are Common Features of Myasthenia Gravis Thymus: Possible Roles in Pathogenesis |
title_short | Inflammation and Epstein-Barr Virus Infection Are Common Features of Myasthenia Gravis Thymus: Possible Roles in Pathogenesis |
title_sort | inflammation and epstein-barr virus infection are common features of myasthenia gravis thymus: possible roles in pathogenesis |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3180177/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21961056 http://dx.doi.org/10.4061/2011/213092 |
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