Licensing Opportunity: Diagnosis and Treatment of Epstein-Barr Virus Infection

 Licensing Opportunity:

Diagnosis and Treatment of Epstein-Barr Virus Infection

This cryo-electromicroscopy image shows the gH/gL/gp45 candidate Epstein-Barr vaccine. Credit: NIAID

Epstein Barr virus (EBV) infection is nearly ubiquitous in the human population worldwide. Most people acquire EBV in early childhood, experience no symptoms or only a brief, mild cold-like illness, and remain infected throughout their lives while remaining asymptomatic. Immune suppression can result in reactivation of EBV and consequently, EBV-associated lymphoproliferative disease.

Scientists at NIAID are developing neutralizing antibodies, originally isolated from humans or nonhuman primates, that could be useful in preventing primary infection or reactivation of EBV in immunocompromised individuals. These antibodies are 10 to 100 times more potent than 72A1, the most potent EBV neutralizing antibody identified to date. In vitro experiments have demonstrated that the antibodies effectively inhibit EBV infection of B cells and epithelial cells as well as cell-to-cell fusion of cells expressing the viral proteins gH/gL. Read more about this exciting licensing opportunity: https://www.ott.nih.gov/technology/e-001-2017.