The Indonesian Biomedical Journal
Vol 18, No 1 (2026)

Epstein–Barr Virus Latent Membrane Protein-1 (EBV LMP-1) in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: Immune Correlates and Potential as A Clinical Outcome Biomarker

Jajah Fachiroh (Department of Histology and Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Jl. Farmako, Sekip Utara, Yogyakarta 55281)
Fitriya Ramadhani (Department of Histology and Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Jl. Farmako, Sekip Utara, Yogyakarta 55281)
Nayaka Bagus Wahyu Agung Hertanto (School of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Jl. Farmako, Sekip Utara, Yogyakarta 55281)
Dewi Kartikawati Paramita (Department of Histology and Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Jl. Farmako, Sekip Utara, Yogyakarta 55281)



Article Info

Publish Date
23 Feb 2026

Abstract

In endemic populations, nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is associated with epstein-barr virus (EBV) infection, with latent membrane-1 (LMP-1) playing a major role as an oncoprotein. Despite this well-established biological role, the clinical use of LMP-1 remains limited; therefore this review aimed to discuss the potential use of LMP-1 as clinical biomarker. Based on systematic searching results in two major biomedical journal databases, in this review, only a small number of studies that evaluated LMP-1 as a clinical outcome. Studies examining the relationship between LMP-1 and its related biomarkers in clinical samples were particularly scarce. By mapping the existing literature, this scoping review highlights mechanistic linking of LMP-1 to specific biomarker, such as interferon gamma (IFN-γ), leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 9 (CXCL9), programmed cell death ligand-1 (PDL-1), and had a positive regulatory loop with EBV-encoded small RNA (EBERs) serving to amplify inflammatory signals that facilitates NPC progression. A clear gap between evidence mechanism of LMP-1 and clinical research practice was observed. This may related to several reasons, including low detectability, a heterogeneous expression in tumor tissue; hence shifted into surrogated biomarkers that reflected LMP-1 signalling than the protein itself. Future studies should focus on combining LMP-1 with related inflammatory or immune markers, and conducting well-designed clinical studies to better define the potential role of LMP-1 within clinically relevant biomarker strategies for NPC.KEYWORDS: oncoprotein, stage, malignancy of nasopharynx, prognosis, survival, inflammation 

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