Relationship between clinical stage, histopathology and antibody titers against the second epstein‐barr virus nuclear antigen (EBNA‐2) in non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma patients

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Abstract
Non‐Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) patients with centroblastic (Cb) or centroblastic‐centrocytic (Cb/Cc)‐diffuse lymphomas, immunocytoma (IC) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in clinical stages III‐IV and with active disease (highly malignant group) were compared to NHL patients with CLL, IC, and centrocytic (Cc) or centroblastic‐centrocytic (Cb‐Cc)‐diffuse/follicular lymphomas, in clinical stages I‐II and with inactive disease (low malignant group) based on the presence of antibodies to Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) nuclear antigen I (EBNA‐I) and 2 (EBNA‐2). In the highly malignant group, anti‐EBNA‐1 geometric mean titers (GMT) were 13.2 (range <2‐80) and anti‐EBNA‐2 60.6 (range: 20‐320). The ratio between the logarithms of anti‐EBNA‐1 and anti‐EBNA‐2 antibody titers was <1.0 (mean: 0.32) in all the patients examined. In 6 out of 8 patients of the low malignant group, anti‐EBNA‐I titers were higher (mean: 30.1; range 10‐160) than anti‐EBNA‐2 titers (mean: 4.3; range 1.0. In healthy EBV‐seropositive individuals, anti‐EBNA‐I GMT were 49 (range: 10‐320) and only 5 out of 17 individuals had detectable anti‐EBNA‐2 titers (GMT: 3; range 1. Among patients of the highly and low malignant groups, patients with follicular‐cell‐derived lymphomas had elevated antibody titers against the restricted component of early antigens (EAR), whereas all patients with IC and 2 out of 4 CLL patients had elevated antibody titers against the diffuse component of early antigens (EA‐D). The results indicate that the ratio between anti‐EBNA‐1 and anti‐EBNA‐2 antibody titers may be of diagnostic importance in patients with immunodeficiencies.

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