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Article: Keeping herpes infection in check: Pitt researchers describe immune system strategies.
- Article from:
- NewsRx Health & Science
- Article date:
- November 2, 2008
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Herpes simplex virus type I can cause bouts of cold sores, blindness and potentially lethal encephalitis when it reawakens from a quiescent state in the nerve cells it infects.
To prevent these consequences, the stealthy virus is kept under constant guard by the immune system, say University of Pittsburgh scientists. Their research challenges the once common notion that latent HSV-1 in sensory neurons is invisible to the immune system.
Actually, immune cells keep the infection under close surveillance, actively holding HSV-1 in check without destroying the neurons harboring it, said Robert L. Hendricks, Ph.D., Joseph F. Novak professor and vice-chair for ...