TGFBR2 and Epstein-Barr virus infection: To examine the effect of disrupting TGF-β/SMAD signaling on the outcome and stability of EBV infection in these immortalized NPE cells, the parental NP460 and TGFBR2 knockout NP460KO cells were infected with a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged recombinant EBV (Akata strain), and the EBV-positive cells were isolated using FACS and grown for 7 and 14 days as we described previously31.