I've been working on the talk and since the class does not have a strong 

background on immunology, I did a search which would help them understand my 

talk better.Here are the sites that I have found:

Introduction to Immunology:

http://sprojects.mmi.mcgill.ca/dir/immunology.asp

Understanding Autoimmune Disease:

http://www.niaid.nih.gov/publications/autoimmune/autoimmune.htm

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus:

http://www-medlib.med.utah.edu/WebPath/TUTORIAL/SLE/SLE.html

Epstein-Barr Virus:

http://www.ufla.org/~jvankomen/ebv.htm

Please make it a required reading.If they don't read it they will not know 

what I am talking about.

Abstract

Antibodies to double stranded DNA (dsDNA) are the hallmark of the chronic autoimmune disease Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE).The etiology of this disease is unknown.However, previous studies have suggested that viruses may play a role.One such virus that has been implicated in the onset of SLE is the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV).Studies by James et al. (1995) have demonstrated that rabbits immunized with a peptide homologous to Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen-1 (EBNA-1), a major DNA binding protein encoded by EBV genome and the spliceosomal ribonucleoprotein Sm (SmRNP), developed antibodies to EBNA-1, SmRNP, and dsDNA.It is not clear why antibodies to dsDNA arose.We hypothesize that the complexing of EBNA-1 to eukaryotic dsDNA may render the DNA immunogenic and lead to an anti-dsDNA antibody response.To test this hypothesis we immunized BALB/c mice intramuscularly with an EBNA-1 expressing plasmid (pDY-6a).Control mice were injected with a plasmid lacking any EBV sequence (pUC18).pDY-6a is known to replicate autonomously in murine cell lines.Prior to injection, we demonstrated that pDY-6a could replicate in a murine cell line for at least 15 days.Using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) we were able to demonstrate the maintenance ofpDY-6a in mouse tissue for 15 days post injection.The expression of the viral antigen in mouse tissue was also demonstrated by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).After boosting at two week intervals, immunize mice were found to produce IgG antibodies to EBNA-1 as well as antibodies to dsDNA.The IgG antibodies to dsDNA appeared three weeks following the appearance of antibodies to EBNA-1.This is the first time that in vivo expression of EBNA-1 in the mouse has been shown to elicit an anti-dsDNA response and suggests that EBV may play a role in the etiology of SLE.

Supported by NIH R21A147581