Annals Internal Medicine, Author Interviews, Herpes Viruses, HIV / 01.07.2014

Connie Celum, MD, MPH Professor of Global Health and Medicine Director, International Clinical Research Center University of Washington Harborview Medical Center Seattle WA 98104MedicalResearch.com: Interview with Connie Celum, MD, MPH Professor of Global Health and Medicine Director, International Clinical Research Center University of Washington Harborview Medical Center Seattle WA  98104 MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Celum: We conducted a randomized, double blind study of daily oral tenofovir and tenofovir combined with emtricitabine (FTC) as oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV among HIV serodiscordant couples (in which onepartner had HIV and the other partner did not) in Kenya and Uganda. Because of recent studies showing that tenofovir gel could reduce the chances of becoming HSV-2 infected, we studied the subset of HIV-uninfected partners who did not have HSV-2 and compared the rates who became HSV-2 infected during follow-up among those  who received oral pre-exposure prophylaxis versus those who received placebo.  We found that oral pre-exposure prophylaxis reduced HSV-2 acquisition by 30%.
Author Interviews, Herpes Viruses, Infections, Nature, Pulmonary Disease / 21.11.2013

Gerard Nuovo MD Professor College of Medicine, The Ohio State University Satellite Laboratory, Ohio State Univ Comprehensive Cancer Center Phylogeny Inc, Powell, OhioMedicalResearch.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.