Murine gammaherpesvirus-68 is an in vivo model of gammaherpesvirus pathogenesis

A major focus of our group is on the molecular virology of Gammaherpesviruses (?-herpesviruses) which cause life-long persistent infections in humans and animals. ?-herpesviruses are important pathogens of humans and domestic/livestock animals, causing variety of diseases in their respective hosts, including oncogenesis.  Invariably, these viruses cause an initial productive (lytic) infection, often in non-lymphoid cells, followed by a prolonged and persistent (latent) infection of mostly lymphoid (B and T) cells as well as cells of the monocyte/macrophage lineage.  Whereas the persistent phase of infection is often associated with clinical latency, the initial lytic infection and sporadic reactivation from latency are commonly associated with clinical disease, oncogenesis and in severe cases, death.  Attempts to understand how ?-herpesviruses cause disease in their respective hosts and the molecular basis of the lytic (productive)/latent (persistent)phases of infection are a major focus of virology reserach worldwide. We are one of the leading reserach groups in the UK with a proven track record of working with the well established murine model, murine ?-herpesvirus-68(MHV-68, also known as MuHV-4).

Our research has been funded by the NIH (USA), BBSRC, the Royal Society (London), and University of Liverpool.

The diagram above left shows the the route of infection with MHV-68. The virus causes mainly lytic infection in lungs. This is cleared by cells of the immune system by 14 days after initial infection. However,the virus persists as a life-long latent infection mainly in B cells in lymphoid tissues. The diagram above right shows virus titres in lungs and the spleen.