EBV Modulates Host Cell microRNA-194 to Promote IL-10 Production and B Lymphoma Cell Survival

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of EBV infection on host cell miR and to characterize the miRNome in EBV+ B cell lymphomas from patients with PTLD. A qPCR array was used to measure the expression level of 377 previously identified miRs from RNA isolated from three sources: total B cells isolated from healthy individuals (n=4), lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL) generated by transformation of normal B cell with the B95-8 lab strain of EBV (n=4) and EBV+ B cell lines isolated from patients with PTLD (n=6). miRNA expression was assayed in total B cells samples (n = 4, in duplicate), in lymphoblastoid cell lines (n = 4, in duplicate) and in spontaneous lymphoblastoid cell lines derived from PTLD patients with EBV+ B cell lymphomas (n = 6 in duplicate). The expression of miRNA in the B cell samples was used as a control.