Virally targeted therapies for EBV-associated malignancies

Abstract
In Epstein–Barr virus (EBV)-positive lymphomas, the presence of the EBV genome in virtually all tumor cells, but very few normal cells, suggests that novel, EBV-targeted therapies could be used to treat these malignancies. In this paper, we review a variety of different approaches currently under development that specifically target EBV-infected cells for destruction. EBV-based strategies for treating cancer include prevention of viral oncogene expression, inducing loss of the EBV episome, the purposeful induction of the lytic form of EBV infection, and enhancing the host immune response to virally encoded antigens.