Human cytomegalovirus latency in cultured monocytes

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管它们存在于不同的细胞类型中，但所有疱疹病毒都可以进入一种称为潜伏期的静止状态。当这些病毒处于潜伏状态时，它们对攻击复制病毒的抗病毒治疗有抵抗力。因此，现有的药物治疗活动性感染的症状，但不能清除潜伏病毒，因此不能治愈疱疹病毒感染。因此，促进我们对潜在延迟机制的理解至关重要；的确，这是我们这个领域的一个主要的悬而未决的问题。人巨细胞病毒（HCMV）在髓系细胞中处于潜伏状态。虽然病毒可能会因潜伏而频繁重新激活，但它很容易控制，对健康人没有已知后果。然而，当免疫系统受损或不成熟的人从潜伏期重新出现再激活时，可引起严重的发病率和死亡率。因此，开发控制并最终根除潜伏病毒的能力至关重要，而这种能力将来自对延迟的更深入理解。我的长期目标是采用一种经过验证的潜伏期细胞培养模型——外周血单核细胞——来研究潜伏开始、维持和退出的分子机制。我们将主要对HCMV临床分离株进行调查；我们的技术方法将结合遗传学、分子生物学和蛋白质组学。我的具体目标是利用我们的细胞培养潜伏期模型来(i)研究细胞表型对HCMV潜伏期的影响；（ii）研究潜伏期病毒蛋白编码基因的作用；（iii）验证病毒和/或细胞编码mirna在HCMV潜伏期中的作用。这是一个研究HCMV潜伏期的好时机，因为我们现在认识到临床和实验室分离的病毒之间的许多关键差异，这些差异导致它们在实验感染中表现不同，实验系统已经开发出来研究培养细胞中的潜伏期，并且最近已经确定了可能在潜伏期中发挥重要作用的新生物成分。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Although they reside in different cell types, all herpes viruses can enter a state of quiescence termed latency. When these viruses are latent, they are resistant to antiviral therapies that attack replicating viruses. As a result, existing drugs treat symptoms of active infections, but do not clear latent virus, and, therefore, do not cure herpes virus infections. Consequently, it is critically important to advance our understanding of the mechanisms underlying latency; indeed, this is one of the major outstanding questions in our field. Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) resides in a latent state in cells of the myeloid lineage. Although the virus likely reactivates frequently from latency, it is readily controlled with no known consequences to healthy people. However, reactivation can cause severe morbidity and mortality when it re-emerges from latency in people with compromised or immature immune systems. Thus, it is critical to develop the ability to control and eventually eradicate latent virus, and this capability will come from a deeper understanding of latency. My long term objective is to employ a validated cell culture model of latency -- peripheral blood monocytes -- to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying the initiation, maintenance and exit from latency. We will carry out our investigations primarily with clinical isolates of HCMV; and our technical approach will combine genetics, molecular biology and proteomics. My specific aims are designed to employ our cell culture model of latency to (i) investigate the effect of cell phenotype on HCMV latency; (ii) study the role of viral protein-coding genes with the potential to function during latency; and (iii) test the hypothesis that viral and/or cell-coded miRNAs function in HCMV latency. This is an opportune time to study HCMV latency, because we now appreciate many of the critical differences between clinical versus laboratory isolates of the virus that cause them to behave differently in experimental infections, experimental systems have been developed to investigate latency in cultured cells, and new biological components likely to play important roles in latency have been recently identified.