Serum and salivary IgA antibodies against a defined epitope of the Epstein‐Barr virus nuclear antigen (EBNA) are elevated in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

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Abstract
The Epstein‐Barr virus nuclear antigen I (EBNA I) is the only latent EBV antigen consistently expressed in malignant tissues of the nasopharynx. A 20‐amino‐acid synthetic peptide, p107 contains a major epitope of EBNA I. We tested sera from 210 patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and from 128 normal individuals (NHS) for IgA antibodies to p107 using an enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Whereas 191/210 (91%) of NPC patients had IgA antibodies to p107, only 17/128 (13.3%) of NHS had such antibodies and only 6/57 (10.5%) of sera from patients with malignancies other than NPC had IgA‐p107 reactivity. Thirty‐nine salivary samples from 46 NPC patients (84.8%) also contained IgA‐p107 antibodies whereas only 3/42 (7.1%) of normal saliva samples were IgA‐p107 positive. The results suggest that IgA antibodies to EBNA I may become a useful, easily measurable, marker for NPC.

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