The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is one of the world’s most common viruses, thought to be lurking in 95 percent of adults. For most, it causes no obvious symptoms.
But EBV is more than a short-term infection.
Once it enters the body, EBV can stay for life, and it has been linked to several cancers, multiple sclerosis, and other severe health complications. Now, new research has given us a promising way to fight it.
A team from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and the University of Washington in the US developed antibodies that target two proteins on the surface of EBV particles.
These proteins help the virus unlock access to our B cells, a type of white blood cell that plays a central role in the immune system.
Blocking their activity would prevent EBV from taking hold in the first place and may also be enough to prevent its reactivation later in life.
An electron micrograph showing Epstein-Barr virus particles. (NIAID)
In experiments with mice carrying human-like immune systems, one of those antibodies protected the animals from EBV infection.
The work done here also gets around a perennial problem with developing EBV antibodies: the virus is so ubiquitous in its attack on the body that finding specific immune cells designed to fight it and to base antibodies on becomes very difficult.
“Finding human antibodies that block Epstein-Barr virus from infecting our immune cells has been particularly challenging because, unlike other viruses, EBV finds a way to bind to nearly every one of our B cells,” says biochemist Andrew McGuire.
“We decided to use new technologies to try to fill this knowledge gap and we ended up taking a critical step toward blocking one of the world’s most common viruses.”
Specially bred mice were used to produce human antibodies. (Chhan et al., Cell Rep. Med., 2026)
One of the smartest parts of the process was using mice bred to produce genetically human antibodies, which means a better chance they’ll be accepted by the human body when injected, if and when the research gets to that stage.
When the animals were exposed to the two EBV proteins, gp350 and gp42, mouse cells triggered the precise immune response the researchers were looking for, thereby enabling precisely targeted antibodies.
Ultimately, the researchers isolated 10 new antibodies in the lab – two targeting gp350 and eight targeting gp42 – and, when tested in living mice, one of these antibodies showed particularly promising protection against EBV.
“Not only did we identify important antibodies against Epstein-Barr virus, but we also validated an innovative new approach for discovering protective antibodies against other pathogens,” says pathobiologist Crystal Chhan.
“As an early-career scientist, it was an exciting finding and has helped me appreciate how science often leads to unexpected discoveries.”
When EBV causes noticeable illness in humans, it usually first presents as infectious mononucleosis, also known as glandular fever. After that, it sticks around in the body in a dormant, noninfectious state and can become much more dangerous – especially in those with weakened immune systems.
One hope for these antibodies is that they might be used in the hundreds of thousands of organ and bone marrow transplants performed each year. These transplants require immunosuppression, which can leave people vulnerable to EBV.
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In particular, post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLD) driven by EBV are a problem. This is where lymphocytes (those B cells again) can get out of control, leading to life-threatening cancers.
With a dose of the newly discovered antibodies, that out-of-control growth could be checked.
“Preventing EBV viremia has strong potential to reduce the incidence of PTLD and limit the need to reduce immunosuppression,” says infectious disease physician Rachel Bender Ignacio.
Blocking infection could be particularly helpful in transplant cases involving children, who may not yet have been exposed to EBV.
There’s a lot more work to do to reach the treatment stage, but it’s encouraging that we’ve found new ways to stop EBV from infecting human immune cells. The next stage is to work towards human safety testing and clinical trials.
Other scientists have been working on an EBV vaccine.
“After many years of searching for a viable way to protect against Epstein-Barr virus, this is a significant stride for the scientific community and the people at the highest risk of complications from this virus,” says McGuire.
The research has been published in Cell Reports Medicine.
