MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Gerard Nuovo MD Professor College of Medicine, The Ohio State University Satellite Laboratory, Ohio State Univ Comprehensive Cancer Center Phylogeny Inc, Powell, Ohio MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Nuovo: The main finding of the study was that idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis was strongly associated with an infection by a herpesvirus.  The data that supported this main finding included:

• 1) detection of the viral DNA by in situ hybridization in each case of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and in none of the controls;
• 2) the localization of the viral DNA to the nucleus of the cell that orchestrates IPF, the regenerating epithelial cell (herpes viruses localize to the nucleus of the target cell);
• 3) the demonstration that the viral DNA co-localized with "pirated proteins" that the virus makes during productive infection (these were IL-17. cyclin D, dihydrofolate reductase, and thymidylate synthase); this combination of proteins are rarely if ever co-expressed in lung disease and  their co-expression per se was highly suggestive of a viral infection;
• 4) the demonstration by RTPCR that the cyclin D RNA in IPF comes from the virus and not the human cells;
• 5) the recognition that this family of herpesviruses (called gammaherpesvirus) causes IPF in other animals including horses, mice, and donkeys;
• 6) the cloning of part of the gene of the virus from a clinical IPF sample that showed 100% homology to the published sequence of the likely viral pathogen - herpesvirus saimiri. (more…)