One of the major disease manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is lupus nephritis (LN), and the underlying mechanisms are not yet understood. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) reactivation was associated with the induction of SLE, with EBV-encoded latent membrane protein1 (LMP1) plays a vital role in this process. Although it was reported that LN was associated with LMP1, most of these results are from patients with ages differed greatly (range, 10-56 years). Given the increased prevalence of EBV infection in young patients, we focused on the association of LN and LMP1 expression in the renal tissues of young patients (range, 6-16 years) in this study. We found that the positive rate of LMP1 in the renal tissues was significantly higher in patients with LN compared with control (P<0.001), which is consistent with the previous reports. The positive rates of LMP1 were similar between the patients of initial onset and relapse, and there was no detectable difference between the patients with and without concurrent infection (P>0.05). However, we reported for the first time about the positive correlation of LMP1 with classification of LN. The proportion of young patients positive for anti‑Sm antibody was significantly higher in the LMP1 positive group compared with the LMP1 negative control (P>0.05). These results indicate that EBV infection in the renal of young patients may lead to the increased severity of LN, and the expression of anti-Sm is likely contributed to this process.
Keywords: EBV; LMP1; LN; SLE.