EBV infection led to a markedly decrease in the p-PERK and p-eIF2α levels in 4 of the 5 cell lines (Fig. 1d), among which only one nasopharyngeal epithelial cell line, HONE1-EBV, exhibited comparable levels of p-PERK and p-eIF2α to those in its EBV-negative counterpart. Here, EIF2AK3 is linked to Epstein-Barr virus infection.