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The article presents information on reactivation of viral carcinogenesis. It reports that patients with rheumatoid arthritis and polymyositis treated with the immunosuppresive drug methotrexate (MTX) develop Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positive lymphomas more frequently than healthy individuals or similar patients treated with non-immunosuppressive drugs. According to researchers, latent infection is associated with cellular transformation of B cells, but the lytic form of infection, which leads to release of virus particles and death of the host cell, might also increase the number of latently EBV-infected B cells and increase the likelihood of malignancy.

Hodgkin's lymphoma was first described in 1832. The aetiology of this lymphoma, however, remained enigmatic for a long time. Only within the past 10 years has the B-cell nature of the pathognomonic Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg (HRS) cells been revealed, along with several recurrent genetic lesions. The pathogenetic role for Epstein-Barr virus infection has also been substantiated. HRS cells in classical Hodgkin's lymphoma have several characteristics that are unusual for lymphoid tumour cells, and the Hodgkin's lymphoma microenvironment is dominated by an extensive mixed, potentially inflammatory cellular infiltrate. Understanding the contribution of all of these changes to the pathogenesis of this disease is essential for the development of novel therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) was discovered 40 years ago from examining electron micrographs of cells cultured from Burkitt's lymphoma, a childhood tumour that is common in sub-Saharan Africa, where its unusual geographical distribution-which matches that of holoendemic malaria-indicated a viral aetiology. However, far from showing a restricted distribution, EBV-a?-herpesvirus-was found to be widespread in all human populations and to persist in the vast majority of individuals as a lifelong, asymptomatic infection of the B-lymphocyte pool. Despite such ubiquity, the link between EBV and 'endemic' Burkitt's lymphoma proved consistent and became the first of an unexpectedly wide range of associations discovered between this virus and tumours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on a study by Malcolm Brenner and colleagues that one way to enhance the costimulation of T cells and increase their survival and anti-tumor activity in vivo, is to express a tumor-specific-antigen receptor in cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) that are specific for Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) because these cells are extensively costimulates by EBV-infected B cells in vivo.