Abstract:
Objective To investigate the presence of integrated Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA in the NK/T cell lymphoma (NKTCL) genome and analyze the integration information in the genome of NKTCL cell lines.
Methods PCR and in situ hybridization were used to detect EBV infection in five EBV (+) NK/T samples and four EBV (-) NK/T samples provided by the biobanks of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University. Whole-genome DNA of the samples was sequenced and subjected to bioinformatics analysis. Whole-genome sequence alignment was used to identify the EBV integration sequence. BLAST analysis was used to compare EBV fasta files of the samples and EBV fasta library. CREST software was used to extract softclip reads, filter all paired reads, and enumerate their distribution on chromosomes. The integrated genomics viewer (IGV) was used to compare the distribution of reads in partial regions of chromosome. PCR was used to amplify the high-frequency integration region of the EBV DNA. The amplified fragments were sanger sequenced.
Results EBV DNA and EBER expression were detected in five EBV (+) NK/T samples but not in the four EBV (-) NK/T samples. Sequencing depth, coverage depth, proportion of coverage, and proportion of alignment all met the requirements for subsequent research. Sequence alignment revealed that the captured sequences were viral sequences. Filtered reads were most numerous in EBV (+) NKTCL cell line SNK, YTS, and EBV (+) nasal NKTCL tissue. The reads were non-randomly enriched in chromosome 2. EBV DNA integration in the 400 bp region of chr2:30234084-30234483 caused insertion or deletion in the chr2p23.1 site.
Conclusions EBV DNA is highly integrated in the chr2p23.1 site of EBV (+) NKTCL cells and may affect the expression of related genes.