Recent Advances in Understanding Epstein-Barr Virus

Dear Colleagues,

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a human gamma-herpesvirus and more than 90% of population is infected with the virus. EBV infects with oropharyngeal naïve B lymphocytes through saliva then spread to the adjacent B lymphocytes and epithelial cells. Immunological maturation of infected host divides initial infections to asymptomatic infection in infancy and infectious mononucleosis in adolescence. The initial productive lytic infection will shift to persistent latent infection, where limited viral transcripts are expressed to support persistent infection. In most of the cases, EBV associates with the infected person without any symptoms during the person’s life. Primarily resting memory B lymphocytes in peripheral blood provide a permanent reservoir for the virus. However, EBV sometimes shifts from latent to lytic infection in association with local or systemic immunological suppressions. The life long persistence and regional activation may induce oncogenic activation of infected cells in some persons. Thus, EBV sometimes associates with lymphoid or epithelial cancers (Burkitt’s lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, NK/T lymphoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, EBV-associated gastric cancers, and so on). EBV-specific immunity controls shift from lytic to latent infection as well as formation of EBV-associated cancers. In order to understand the complex interactions between EBV and host, this Special Issue will collect reviews or original research articles regarding recent advances in Epstein-Barr virus research, which is spanning from basic biology to potential clinical implications.

Prof. Hironori Yoshiyama
Prof. Teru Kanda
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Microorganisms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.