Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Most people are infected with three different herpesviruses; herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). These life-long infections can be asymptomatic or can lead to a variety of health problems including oral lesions, mononucleosis, cancer and life-threatening illnesses in immune suppression. EBV is a particular health problem as it induces a variety of lymphomas and carcinomas, resulting in ~200,000 new cancer cases and ~140,000 deaths per year. Herpesviruses persist and cause disease through the action of the numerous proteins that they encode, which bind to and manipulate the functions of some cellular proteins. However the functions and cellular targets of most of the viral proteins have not yet been determined. The activities of many cellular proteins are controlled by SUMO modifications, so viruses can affect cellular processes by altering these modifications. This project uses comprehensive methods to elucidate how EBV proteins manipulate cellular SUMO pathways as well as related proteins in HSV-1 and CMV. The cellular proteins targeted by these viral proteins and their significance for viral infection and cellular processes will also be determined. This work will provide insight into how viruses manipulate cells to enable life-long persistence and cause disease. It will also identify cellular proteins that play important roles in various cellular processes that are altered by viral infection, and mechanisms of regulation of these processes. Finally, the viral-host interactions discovered in this project will provide potential drug targets for antiviral treatments.