engleski

A transcriptomic approach to viral disease research - generation of MCMV cDNA library

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a member of beta-herpesvirus family and is widely distributed throughout world populations. After infection, which usually passes with no symptoms, it establishes a life-long persistence with minimal or no damage to its host. However, in persons with weaker immunity it can cause grave disease and even death. Unfortunately, there are no available vaccines and very little is undersood regarding the pathogenesis of HCMV infections. HCMV pathogenesis research is hindered by HCMV’s species specificity which prevents the use of animal models. However, murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) is considered as an excellent model for studying viral immune evasion strategies, pathologenesis of the various CMV associated diseases and, most importantly, possible treatment strategies. Progress in developing new vaccines and antivirals will depend on a detailed understanding of viral gene products and their function in diseases. Therefore, goal of this project is to characterize all of the viral transcription products that accumulate in infected cells, both polyadenylated and non- polyadenylated. Previous studies to analyze just poly(A) transcription products of HCMV revealed many novel genes and gene products, and we expect to find many novel gene products of MCMV. Analysis of these gene products may yield new insights into CMV diseases and represent novel targets for the development of antiviral treatments and vaccines. In the next phase, we will generate rationally-designed gene arrays on glass chips to investigate involvement and regulation of these gene products in various diseases, various tissues and organs and during different infection conditions. Finally, in collaboration with IT researchers, we will integrate our data with bioinformatic tools in order to develop a publicly accessible database of the cytomegalovirus transcriptome. We envision this database to serve as the definitive resource for the worldwide research community.

mcmv; transcriptome; cDNA library; poly(a)

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