KSHV Modulation of Type I Interferon

描述（由申请人提供）：疱疹感染是世界上最常见的病毒感染之一。这些病毒可以是亚临床的，或者像卡波西肉瘤相关疱疹病毒（KSHV）一样，它们可以导致危险的疾病，如癌症。众所周知，KSHV在艾滋病患者中引起卡波西肉瘤（KS）和其他几种淋巴细胞增生性疾病。这些病毒在口腔内引起感染，并可经口传播。这个应用程序的总体目标是定义KSHV之间的交互

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Herpes infections represent one of the most common viral infections that exist in the world. These viruses can be subclinical or as in the case of Kaposi's Sarcoma Associated Herpesvirus (KSHV) they can lead to dangerous diseases such as cancer. KSHV is well known in AIDS patients to cause Kaposi's Sarcoma (KS) and several other lymphoproliferative diseases. These viruses setup infection in oral cavities and can be transmitted orally. The overall goal of this application is to define the interactions between KSHV and the innate immune response the virus elicits in infected cells in the oral cavity. We will focu on the innate immune response to KSHV infection, especially the Type I Interferon response. Type I Interferon is well known to be the body's natural anti-viral system and almost all viruses that cause infection in humans have devolved ways to block or use this system to enhance their replication in the host. The goal of this project is to lead to the development of novel, innate immune based therapeutics harnessing the power of the innate immune system to directly stop KSHV replication. We were the first group to determine how the innate immune system can recognize herpesviruses (including KSHV) and have also defined the signaling mechanisms that induce interferon (from the host side) and block interferon (from the virus side). This application is setup to determine how these systems interact together to lead to infection and disease. Long term work from this R03 grant will setup preliminary data to apply for a larger R01 grant that will explore how these mechanisms can be modulated to fight KSHV infection and associated diseases.