Our group will continue our studies directed to the understanding and control of latent human herpesvirus infections. We will focus on herpes simplex and human cytomegalovirus. For herpes simplex infection, we will study herpes genitalis in both humans and the guinea pig model of infection. We will continue to study gamma interferon as a correlate of disease containment in both systems as well as investigating the possibility of augmenting immunity conferred by isolated viral glycoproteins with immunomodulators such as interleukin-2. For human cytomegalovirus, we will continue to study the human immune response to two glycoproteins identified in the previous granting period. One glycoprotein is 86 kDa (p86) and the other is a complex of glycoproteins of 130 and 55 Da (p130/55).
Our aim i s to establish whether humoral and cellular immune responses to these specific glycoproteins correlate with protective immunity. We will also analyse the importance of gamma interferon in human cytomegalovirus infection to determine whether it correlates, as in herpes labialis, with containment of virus. We will examine whether it correlates, as in herpes labialis, with containment of virus. We will examine whether gamma interferon contributes to immunopathology of human cytomegalovirus infection in allograft recipients. Finally we will develop anti- idiotype monoclonal antibodies to the murine monoclonal antibodies with virus neutralizing activity described in our laboratory. We will use these anti-idiotype monoclonals as possible adjuvants for immunization with either the p86 or p130/55 as well as new probes for studying the regulation of the immune response following human cytomegalovirus infection. We will also use them to attempt to identify a cellular receptor for human cytomegalovirus.
| Wagner, J A; Ross, H; Hunt, S et al. (1995) Prophylactic ganciclovir treatment reduces fungal as well as cytomegalovirus infections after heart transplantation. Transplantation 60:1473-7 |
