Viruses comprise an extensive pool of mobile genetic elements in eukaryote cell cultures and human clinical samples.

Viruses shape a diversity of ecosystems by modulating their microbial, eukaryotic, or plant host metabolism. The complexity of virus-host interaction networks is progressively fathomed by novel metagenomic approaches. By using a novel metagenomic method, we explored the virome in mammalian cell cultures and clinical samples to identify an extensive pool of mobile genetic elements in all of these ecosystems.

Human cytomegalovirus phosphoproteins are hypophosphorylated and intrinsically disordered.

Protein phosphorylation has important regulatory functions in cell homeostasis and is tightly regulated by kinases and phosphatases. The tegument of human cytomegalovirus (CMV) contains not only several proteins reported to be extensively phosphorylated but also cellular protein phosphatases (PP1 and PP2A). To investigate this apparent inconsistency, we evaluated the phosphorylation status of the tegument proteins pUL32 and pp65 by enzymatic dephosphorylation and MS.

Clinical significance of the single nucleotide polymorphism TLR2 R753Q in heart transplant recipients at risk for cytomegalovirus disease.

Background: The toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) is a significant component of innate immunity against cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection but information on the clinical significance of the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) (R753Q) is conflicting.

Objectives: The inconsistent observations of the immunological and clinical significance of the TLR2 R753Q polymorphism for CMV infection indicates the influence of confounders.

Study Design: The presence of the TLR2 polymorphism was determined by a genotyping assay of 175 HTX patients and 281 healthy blood donors and evaluated in relation to selected virological and clinical parameters.

Microbial Cryptotopes are Prominent Targets of B-cell Immunity.

B-cell recognition of microbial antigens may be limited by masking of epitopes within three-dimensional structures (cryptotopes). Here we report that unmasking of cryptotopes by unfolding whole cytomegalovirus (CMV) antigen preparations with the chaotropic reagent Urea and probing with immune sera from healthy individuals (n = 109) increased ELISA signals by 36% in comparison to folded CMV antigens (P < 0.001).

Human cytomegalovirus infection downregulates vitamin-D receptor in mammalian cells.

Vitamin D (VD) is essential for the human body and involved in a wide variety of critical physiological processes including bone, muscle, and cardiovascular health, as well as innate immunity and antimicrobial responses. Here, we elucidated the significance of the VD system in cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, which is one of the most common opportunistic infections in immunocompromised or -suppressed patients. We found that expression of vitamin D receptor (VDR) was downregulated in CMV-infected cells within 12h [hrs] post infection [p.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients have a preserved cytomegalovirus-specific antibody response despite progressive hypogammaglobulinemia.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is characterized by progressive hypogammaglobulinemia predisposing affected patients to a variety of infectious diseases but paradoxically not to cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease. Moreover, we found reactivity of a panel of CLL recombinant antibodies (CLL-rAbs) encoded by a germ-line allele with a single CMV protein, pUL32, despite differing antibody binding motifs. To put these findings into perspective, we studied prospectively relative frequency of viremia, kinetics of total and virus-specific IgG over time, and UL32 genetic variation in a cohort of therapy-naive patients (n=200).