Here is an update on research currently being undertaken from Michelle J. West, Professor of Tumour Virology, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex.
We are studying how the cancer-associated virus Epstein-Barr virus (known as EBV) causes lymphomas. EBV can drive the development of a number of lymphomas (cancers of white blood cells) including Burkitt’s, Hodgkin’s and the lymphomas that occur in patients that have received transplants and are taking drugs to suppress their immune system. EBV infects white blood cells and changes these cells from ones that live for only a few weeks to ones that survive and keep growing and reproducing indefinitely (immortalisation). This is the key feature of a cancer cell and the property of EBV that makes it a potent cancer-driving virus.
We grow lymphoma cells in the laboratory and are using new state-of-the-art molecular technologies alongside conventional molecular and biochemical techniques to investigate what changes EBV makes to white blood cells. Proteins produced by EBV change which genes are switched on and off in white blood cells to increase cell growth and block cell death, promoting cancer development. We have discovered new ways through which EBV proteins control key genes involved in lymphoma development (called MYC and BIM).
We are now progressing this research to fully uncover the way in which some of the most important genes and pathways in lymphoma development are controlled by EBV and investigate ways in which this can be disrupted by newly-developed drugs. These studies will provide important information on how EBV drives lymphoma development, how gene control is disrupted in lymphomas that arise with no virus involvement and how drugs can be used to reverse these gene control changes.
