Epstein-Barr virus latent membrane protein 1 and 2-derived peptides presented on human leukocyte antigen class I (EBV LMP1/LMP2-HLA-I)

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) and latent membrane protein 2 (LMP2) are essential viral oncogenes expressed during the latency phases of EBV infection (Young et al., 2016, PMID: 27013342). These proteins are proteolytically processed into short peptides and presented on the cell surface by human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I molecules, forming a peptide-MHC (pMHC) complex (Taylor et al., 2015, PMID: 25613067). LMP1 acts as a functional mimic of the CD40 receptor to promote cell survival, while LMP2 mimics B-cell receptor signaling. Because these proteins are consistently expressed in EBV-associated malignancies—including nasopharyngeal carcinoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, and post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder—the pMHC complex serves as a highly specific target for immunotherapy. Therapeutic strategies include adoptive T-cell transfers, such as tabelecleucel, and T-cell receptor (TCR) engineered cells that recognize these specific viral epitopes to induce targeted tumor cell lysis (Prockop et al., 2020, PMID: 32814729). Targeting these viral antigens allows for the selective destruction of infected or transformed cells while sparing healthy, non-infected tissue.

Other names

EBV LMP1/2 peptide-MHC complexLMP1/LMP2-HLA class I complexEpstein-Barr virus latent antigen peptidesLMP1/LMP2 pMHC

T-cell receptor (TCR) mediated recognition and subsequent cytotoxic lysis of antigen-presenting cells by CD8+ T-lymphocytes