PMID:22230317

Citation	Hsu, WL, Chung, PJ, Tsai, MH, Chang, CL and Liang, CL (2012) A role for Epstein-Barr viral BALF1 in facilitating tumor formation and metastasis potential. Virus Res. 163:617-27
Abstract	Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a ubiquitous human herpesvirus that triggers transformation and tumorigenesis of latently infected B cells in vitro. BALF1, a Bcl-2-like EBV gene expressed in both latent and lytic stages, was recently characterized in EBV-infected cells; however, the role and function of BALF1 has remained elusive. Here, we demonstrate that BALF1 expression alters cellular morphology. Importantly, BALF1 promotes cellular transformation, with tumorigenicity assays showing larger and substantially greater numbers of tumors in BALF1 transfectant-injected mice compared to mice injected with pcDNA control transfectants. In addition, BALF1 expression increases cell survival under low-serum conditions, an effect that is attributable to suppression of apoptosis, not to promotion of cell-cycle progression. Furthermore, BALF1 transfectants exhibit markedly increased tumor metastasis in vitro and in vivo. Taken together, these findings suggest that BALF1 may be a new tumor marker for EBV diagnosis and provide a new direction for research on treatments of EBV-associated tumors.
Links	PubMed Online version:10.1016/j.virusres.2011.12.017
Keywords	Animals; Disease Models, Animal; Herpesvirus 4, Human/pathogenicity; Lymphoma/pathology; Lymphoma/virology; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Neoplasm Metastasis/pathology; Viral Proteins/metabolism; Virulence Factors/metabolism
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Annotations

Gene product	Qualifier	GO Term	Evidence Code	with/from	Aspect	Extension	Notes	Status
EBVB9:BALF1		GO:0043066: negative regulation of apoptotic process	ECO:0000314:		P		Figure 4 presents the role of BALF1 in regulating apoptosis. After being placed in an environment to cause serum starvation-induced apoptosis, the control pcDNA transfectants showed a statistically significant higher number of apoptotic control cells in comparison to BALF1 transfectants (4A). Part 4B shows 38.9% of apoptotic pcDNA-transfectants, which was about 4-10 fold increase from BALF1-transfectants. Figure 4C represents that the BALF1 expressing cells showed a much higher survival rate in serum starvation conditions which seems to be attributable to suppression of apoptosis.	complete CACAO 7244
EBVB9:BALF1	involved_in	GO:0043066: negative regulation of apoptotic process	ECO:0000314: direct assay evidence used in manual assertion		P		Seeded From UniProt	complete

References

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