As shown in Fig.4B, the luciferase activity was significantly higher in EBER-expressing NU-GC-3 cells than in Neor-transfected NU-GC-3 cells. These results demonstrated that EBER activated transcription of the IGF-I gene.
Further studies demonstrated that increased IGF-1 expression reflected transcriptional activation, and EBV encoded small RNA (EBER) was responsible for IGF-1 induction.
Previous studies demonstrated that EBERs (EBER1 and EBER2) play significant roles in various EBV-infected cancer cells. EBERs induce the expression of interleukin(IL)-10 in BL cells, insulin-like growth factor(IGF)-1 in gastric carcinoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells, IL-9 in T cells that act as an autocrine growth factor. It was also reported that EBERs play critical roles in the B cell growth transformation including IL-6 induction by EBER2.