For the Future Studies of Kaposi’s Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus

2012

Keiji Ueda

It is 18 years since Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated virus (KSHV), also called human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8), was found from Kaposis’ sarcoma (KS) by Chang et al. (1994). More than 8, 000 reports have been published so far and we have learned many things from this virus. I would like to say it is about time to look back previous studies and to think what to study next on the virus, and planed a topic to think what to study next on the virus for future.

Herpesviruses have relatively big genomes and encode a 100 genes or so. Thus, the virion assembly/structure, gene expression regulation and attachment/entry are complicated and have known only an iceberg of them. Studying the details how the viruses run their life cycles and cause diseases in their processes will lead to exploring new therapeutic drugs/methods.

A viral life cycle starts from attachment on the susceptible cells and then, entry into the cells, followed by the viral gene expression, the genome replication, the particle assembly and finally the daughter viruses egress out of the cells. This process is skillfully built and all the viral genes are required for the process, though there are essential genes and non-essential ones. Viral pathogenesis could be established during this process by the interaction between viruses and host cells, and individual host systems such as immune system. In this topic, although I would like to cover all the processes, thankfully, 15 specialists in each field have contributed for this topic.

see full text article:  NIH