Abstract
Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a highly prevalent herpesvirus, persistently infecting between 30 and 100% of the population, depending on socio-economic status (Fields et al., 2013). HCMV remains an important clinical pathogen accounting for more than 60% of complications associated with solid organ transplant patients (Kotton, 2013; Kowalsky et al., 2013; Bruminhent and Razonable, 2014). It is also the leading cause of infectious congenital birth defects and has been linked to chronic inflammation and immune aging (Ballard et al., 1979; Griffith et al., 2016; Jergovic et al., 2019). There is currently no effective vaccine and HCMV antivirals have significant side effects. As current antivirals target viral genes, the virus can develop resistance, reducing drug efficacy. There is therefore an urgent need for new antiviral agents that are effective against HCMV, have better toxicity profiles and are less vulnerable to the emergence of resistant strains. Targeting of host factors that are critical to virus replication is a potential strategy for the development of novel antivirals that circumvent the development of viral resistance. Systematic high throughput approaches provide powerful methods for the identification of novel host-virus interactions. As well as contributing to our basic understanding of virus and cell biology, such studies provide potential targets for the development of novel antiviral agents. High-throughput studies, such as RNA sequencing, proteomics, and RNA interference screens, are useful tools to identify HCMV-induced global changes in host mRNA and protein expression levels and host factors important for virus replication. Here, we summarize new findings on HCMV lytic infection from high-throughput studies since 2014 and how screening approaches have evolved.
Highlights
Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a ubiquitous human pathogen that belongs to the β-herpesvirus subfamily
Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) can infect a broad range of cell types, including endothelial and epithelial cells, fibroblast cells and cells derived from the myeloid lineages (Rice et al, 1984; Sinzger et al, 2008)
A lifelong latent infection can be established in primitive bone-marrow-resident CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells and CD33+ myeloid progenitor cells which retain the latent viral genome as they differentiate into peripheral blood CD14+ monocytes and myeloid dendritic cells (Collins-McMillen et al, 2018; Arcangeletti et al, 2016; Stern et al, 2019)
Summary
Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a ubiquitous human pathogen that belongs to the β-herpesvirus subfamily. It is unclear why HCMV requires asparagine to replicate efficiently whilst other herpesviruses such as HSV-1, does not Another way to measure virus infection in a high-throughput siRNA screen is to quantify levels of key viral transcripts by RNA-seq or reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) (Song et al, 2019). Targeting 687 genes involved in cellular RNA processing, including RNA-binding proteins and ribonucleases using pooled siRNAs (4 siRNAs per gene), HFF cells were infected with HCMV low-passage strain Toledo and infection efficiency was quantified by measuring the mRNA levels of IE1 (immediate-early), UL44 (early), and UL99 (late) genes at 48 HPI (Song et al, 2019).
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