Inhibition of Transfer Infection of Epstein-Barr Virus to Epithelial Cells by Integrin β6 siRNA

Abstract

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) establishes a latent infection in greater than 90% of the worlds adult population and associates with various tumors. EBV primarily infects epithelial cells and B cell in vivo. Mechanism of EBV infection in B cells is known to involve binding of EBV glycoprotein gp350 to CD21 on B cell surface. Epithelial cells are infected with EBV even though most of epithelial cells do not express CD21. Recently, integrin αvβ5, αvβ6 and αvβ8 on epithelial cells were reported to facilitate EBV infection by interacting with gHgL complex. We examined the expression profile of integrins known to be expressed on epithelial cells. Integrin αvβ5 and αvβ6, but not αvβ8 were detected in a gastric epithelial cell line, AGS. We then tested whether siRNAs specific to β6 can inhibit EBV infection of epithelial cells. One among the four tested siRNAs significantly reduced β6 expression and suppressed transfer infection of EBV to AGS cells. Our data suggest that siRNAs to integrins might be useful to control EBV infection to epithelial cells.