Dormant herpes virus reactivates with infections

Unlike most viruses, which succumb to the immune system’s attack, herpes remains in the body forever, lying in wait, sometimes reactivating years later.

Researchers have long wondered what causes herpes viruses — two strains of which are linked to cancer — to reactivate after remaining dormant once the initial infection resolves. Now a team of researchers, including two University of Florida scientists, has discovered that interactions with other infections of parasites later in life can trigger these dormant viruses to resurface and cause disease.

Understanding more about how specific pathogens interact with each other could help scientists devise new and better ways to combat these infections and the diseases they cause, the researchers write in a paper published June 26 in the journal Science.

“Probably 95 percent of us have been infected with at least one herpes virus, but many people never have a problem with it,” said study co-author Rolf Renne, a professor of molecular genetics and microbiology in the UF College of Medicine and a member of the UF Genetics Institute and the UF Health Cancer Center. There are eight herpes viruses that infect humans, causing diseases that range from cold sores and chickenpox to mononucleosis and cancer. “The question has been: What happens to reactivate these viruses to cause disease?”

Led by researchers at the Washington University in St. Louis, the study found that parasite infections later in life can spark an immune reaction that clears the way for the herpes virus to reactivate. In this case, the scientists were studying a specific herpes virus linked to a form of cancer called Kaposi sarcoma, human herpes virus 8.

Photo attribution: Ed Uthman https://www.flickr.com/photos/euthman/