Subcellular Trafficking and Functional Relationship of the HSV-1 Glycoproteins N and M.

The herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) glycoprotein N (gN/UL49.5) is a type I transmembrane protein conserved throughout the herpesvirus family. gN is a resident of the endoplasmic reticulum that in the presence of gM is translocated to the trans Golgi network.

Subcellular trafficking and functional importance of herpes simplex virus type 1 glycoprotein M domains.

Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) glycoprotein M (gM/UL10) is a 473 aa type III transmembrane protein that resides in various membrane compartments. HSV-1 gM contains several putative trafficking motifs, but their functional relevance remains to be elucidated. We show here that transiently expressed gM 19–343 was sufficient for transport to the trans-Golgi network (TGN), whilst gM 133–473, where the first two transmembrane domains were deleted, and gM 1–342, which lacked the final residue of the last transmembrane domain, were retained in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), indicating that all transmembrane domains are required for proper folding and ER exit.

Trip to immunity: resistant cytomegalovirus infection in a lung transplant recipient.

We report the case of a young female lung transplant recipient with difficult-to-treat cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease. While treatment with intravenous (IV) ganciclovir failed due to antiviral drug resistance, a trial with foscarnet resulted in severe side effects. In addition, the patient received IV CMV-specific immune globulins as adjunctive therapy and leflunomide as experimental therapy.

A high-throughput yeast two-hybrid protocol to determine virus-host protein interactions.

The yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) system is a powerful method to identify and analyze binary protein interactions. In the field of virology, the Y2H system has significantly increased our knowledge of structure and function of viral proteins by systematically assessing intraviral protein interactions. Several comprehensive approaches to determine virus-host interactions have provided insight into viral strategies to manipulate the host for efficient replication and to escape host-derived countermeasures.

A beta-herpesvirus with fluorescent capsids to study transport in living cells.

Fluorescent tagging of viral particles by genetic means enables the study of virus dynamics in living cells. However, the study of beta-herpesvirus entry and morphogenesis by this method is currently limited. This is due to the lack of replication competent, capsid-tagged fluorescent viruses.

The heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein K is important for Herpes simplex virus-1 propagation.

The heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) K is an evolutionarily conserved protein with roles in signal transduction and gene expression. An impact of hnRNP K on the life cycle of a broad range of viral pathogens was reported while functional data for herpesviruses were lacking. In this study we show that hnRNP K is important for Herpes simplex virus 1 egress.