Interaction of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato with Epstein-Barr virus in lymphoblastoid cells.

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Could this be the clue as to why so many of us started off with elevated EBV

titres?

a Carnes

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve & db=pubmed & dopt=Ab

stract & list_uids=12630667 & query_hl=16 & itool=pubmed_docsum

1: Folia Biol (Praha). 2003;49(1):40-8. Related Articles, Links

Interaction of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato with Epstein-Barr virus in

lymphoblastoid cells.

Hulinska D, Roubalova K, Schramlova J.

National Reference Laboratory on Borreliosis, Electron Microscopy, National

Institute of Public Health, Prague, Czech Republic.

Since the possibility of interruption of latent EBV infection has been

suggested by the induction of the lytic virus cycle with chemical

substances, other viruses, and by immunosuppression, we hypothesized that

the same effect might happen in B. burgdorferi sensu lato infection as

happens in Lyme disease patients with positive serology for both agents. We

have observed EBV replication in lymphoblastoid cells after superinfection

with B. garinii and B. afzelii strains after 1 and 4 h of their interaction.

We found that viral and borrelial antigens persisted in the lymphoblasts for

3 and 4 days. Morphological and functional transformation of both agents

facilitate their transfer to daughter cells. Association with lymphoblasts

and internalization of B. garinii by tube phagocytosis increased replication

of viruses more successfully than B. afzelii and chemical inductors.

Demonstration of such findings must be interpreted cautiously, but may prove

a mixed borrelial and viral cause of severe neurological disease.

PMID: 12630667 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]