Varicella-Zoster Virus (Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology, Vol. 342)

About this book

Varicella-zoster virus is a common human pathogen that causes varicella (chickenpox), establishes latency in sensory nerve ganglia and can reactivate many years later as herpes zoster. Although the VZV genome is the smallest of the human herpesviruses, VZV genes encode at least 70 proteins. Molecular epidemiologic approaches based on genomic sequencing have documented the global distribution of VZV in distinct clades that reflect patterns of human migration. Contemporary molecular methods are making it possible to dissect how VZV gene products support the viral life cycle, including those that are necessary for viral replication, virion assembly and egress as well as those that permit take over of the host cell by modulating cell cycle regulation, survival and intrinsic antiviral responses. Progress is also being made in understanding the events in VZV pathogenesis and the viral tropisms for keratinocytes, T cells, dendritic cells and neurons during primary infection, latency and reactivation and the innate and adaptive host responses that modulate these events. New insights about molecular virology and pathogenesis have emerged from comparative studies of VZV and simian varicella virus. VZV is the only human herpesvirus for which vaccines to prevent both primary and recurrent infection are approved and VZV vaccines have had significant public health benefits. These achievements and new directions that are unfolding are described in this review of VZV basic and clinical research

Content Level » Research
Keywords » VZV ORF66 - VZV genome - VZV infection - VZV replication - dendritic cells - herpes zoster - nosocomial spread - post-herpetic neuralgia - simian varicella virus
Related subjects » Virology

Table of contents

The VZV Genome, Replication and Effects on Host Cell Cycle Regulation.- The Varicella-Zoster Virus Genome.- VZV Molecular Epidemiology.- Roles of Cellular Transcription Factors in VZV Replication.- Effects of varicella-zoster virus on cell cycle regulatory pathways.- VZV Kinases.- VZV ORF66 protein kinase and its relationship to alphaherpesvirus US3 kinases.- VZV ORF 47 serine protein kinase and its viral substrates.- VZV Glycoproteins.- Overview of varicella-zoster virus glycoproteins gC, gH and gL.- Analysis of the function of glycoproteins E and I and their promoters during VZV replication in virto and in skin and T cell xenografts in the SCID mouse model of VZV pathogenesis.- Varicella-zoster virus glycoprotein M.- VZV Tropism for Cells of the Immune System and Skin.- Varicella Zoster Virus Immune Evasion Strategies.- VZV Infection of Keratinocytes: Production of Cell-Free Infectious Virions in vivo.- Varicella-Zoster Virus T cell Tropism and the Pathogenesis of Skin Infection.- Experimental models to study varicella zoster virus infection of neurons.- VZV Neurotropism, Latency and Reactivation.- Molecular Characterization of Varicella Zoster Virus (VZV) in Latently Infected Human Ganglia: Physical State and Abundance of VZV DNA, Quantitation of Viral Transcripts and Detection of VZV-Specific Proteins.- Neurological Disease Produced by Varicella Zoster Virus Reactivation without Rash.- VZV neurotropism in SCID mouse-human DRG xenografts.- Rodent Models of Varicella-zoster virus neurotropism.- Siminan Varicella Virus.- Simian Varicella Virus: Molecular Virology.- Simian Varicella Virus Pathogenesis.- VZV Vaccines.- VZV Vaccine: Molecular genetics.- VZV T Cell-Mediated Immunity.- Perspectives on Vaccines against Varicella-Zoster Virus Infections.- Subject index