Editor's Summary

17 May 2007

A new angle on herpes

The conventional view of herpesvirus infections is that they are either active and harmful, or at best silent and for the time being harmless. But new work on mice suggests a third option: there may be a direct benefit for chronic herpesvirus infection. Latent infection with the murine HV68 confers prolonged cross-protection against a variety of bacterial pathogens, including Listeria and the plague bacillus. The protection is a result of systemic macrophage activation triggered by -interferon. The latent virus thereby sets the level of innate immunity. Not only is latency an active immunologic state, but this activity provides symbiotic benefit.

Letter: Herpesvirus latency confers symbiotic protection from bacterial infection

Erik S. Barton, Douglas W. White, Jason S. Cathelyn, Kelly A. Brett-McClellan, Michael Engle, Michael S. Diamond, Virginia L. Miller & Herbert W. Virgin, IV

doi:10.1038/nature05762

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