Detroit (July 12, 2013) – A Wayne State University professor will play a major role in the preeminent international medical research conference focused on a group of viruses that infect and affect everyone.
Philip E. Pellett, Ph.D., a professor of Immunology and Microbiology at the WSU School of Medicine, will co-chair the 38th annual International Herpesvirus Workshop, set for July 20-24 at the DeVos Place Convention Center in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Hosted in the United States for the first time since 2010, IHW 2013 offers plenary lectures, concurrent sessions, workshops and poster sessions that share new discoveries, new models, and new opportunities in every aspect of herpesvirus biology. The event will be attended by more than 470 researchers from research universities and institutes throughout the U.S. and Canada, Europe and Asia. This is only the second IHW held in Michigan since 1985.
“The herpes meeting provides a first look at cutting-edge research and potential treatments for viruses that affect a huge percentage of the world’s population. Communication that happens at this meeting has proven to be of extraordinary value in developing relationships and collaborations that have amplified research progress internationally,” Pellett said.
Pellett’s research is aimed at understanding the biology of human herpesviruses and improving clinical outcomes of infection. He studies how human cytomegalovirus remodels cells it infects, transforming them into factories that can produce an infectious virus. CMV is the leading cause of congenitally-acquired mental retardation, deafness, seizures, cerebral palsy, blindness and death, as well as a major pathogen in patients with compromised immune systems. One in 150 children is born with the virus, and one in 750 is born with or will develop permanent disabilities caused by congenital CMV.
Pellett’s co-chair, Steven J. Triezenberg, Ph.D., is head of the Van Andel Institute’s Laboratory of Transcriptional Regulation in Grand Rapids.
“The IHW is the single most important gathering of herpesvirus researchers in the world,” Triezenberg said, whose research focuses on the ways that genes becomes activated when herpes simplex virus initially infects cells. “One important focus this year is on latency in the virus – how and why it goes quiescent and reactivates at a later time.”
Latency is a hallmark of all nine of the herpesviruses known to affect human beings.
“The initial infection often rather quickly subsides,” Triezenberg said. “But the virus stays in our bodies for the rest of our lives, often hiding in nerve cells and blood cells, ready to reactivate in times of physical or emotional stress.”
In addition to latency, the event will include discussion of genome structure, virus cell interactions, immunology, pathogenesis and intervention, treatment and prevention.
Another hallmark of herpesviruses is vast distribution throughout all human populations.
The nine viruses affecting humans are formally known by numbers as human herpesviruses 1 through 8 (HHV1-HHV8, with HHV6 having two subtypes). Estimates vary according to source, but worldwide, rates of either HSV-1 and/or HSV-2 infection are between 60 to 95 percent in adults, while about half of all 5 year olds and 90 to 95 percent of adults in the U.S. have evidence of previous infection with Epstein-Barr virus. HHV-6B infects 90 percent of children by age two.
The nine viruses known to affect humans include:
• Herpes simplex virus 1, formally known as Human herpesvirus 1 (HHV1), is the primary cause of cold sores around the mouth.
• Herpes simplex virus 2 (HHV2), typically causes genital herpes, a sexually transmitted infection.
• Varicella-zoster virus (HHV3), causes chickenpox, and can reactivate later in life to cause shingles.
• Epstein-Barr virus (HHV4) is the major cause of infectious mononucleosis.
• Cytomegalovirus (HHV5) is the leading cause of birth defects and childhood disabilities in the U.S., and can lead to life-threatening complications in AIDS and organ transplant patients.
• HHV6A is the least commonly detected human herpesvirus. A recent report suggests a causal association with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, the most common cause of hypothyroidism in the U.S.
• HHV6B causes roseola, a viral disease causing high fever and skin rash in small children, as well as convulsions associated with fever.
• HHV7 is a widespread virus that can also cause roseola and has also been associated with fever-related convulsions.
• Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (HHV8) is the cause of Kaposi's sarcoma, a form of cancer that can affect patients with AIDS and kidney transplant recipients.
IHW 2013 is sponsored, in part, by Experience Grand Rapids and a variety of research institutes, universities, foundations and pharmaceutical companies including Wayne State University. For more information or to register, please visit the IHW 2013 website at:
http://www.herpesvirusworkshop.com
Founded in 1868, the Wayne State University School of Medicine is the largest single-campus medical school in the nation, with more than 1,000 medical students. In addition to undergraduate medical education, the school offers master’s degree, Ph.D. and M.D.-Ph.D. programs in 14 areas of basic science to about 400 students annually.
Wayne State University is one of the nation’s pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world. For more information about research at Wayne State University, visit http://www.research.wayne.edu.