Description:

Title:

"Alphaherpesviruses: Nanomachines that Invade the Nervous System"

Speaker: Gregory A. Smith, PhD, Professor, Dept. of Microbiology-Immunology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Topic:

Of the hundreds of known human viruses, the vast majority infect the airways and digestive tract. Some of these viruses can inadvertently infect the nervous system and cause severe disease that may result in paralysis or encephalitis. A rare few, including the commonplace herpes simplex virus, are proficient “neuroinvaders” that use the nervous system to their advantage. The neuroinvasive herpesviruses include pathogens that infect hosts ranging from chickens, to whales, to humans, all of which share a remarkable ability to enter the nervous system in an immunocompetent host in the absence of overt physical trauma. How this is achieved is largely unknown, but it is an astonishing example of efficacious neural gene delivery that results in the establishment of life-long latent infections. Periodic reactivation from the latent state results in production of new infectious particles that exit the nervous system to replicate at exposed body surfaces and transmit to new hosts. While this infectious cycle is relatively benign is most cases, disease can manifest ranging from periodic discomfort to life-threatening encephalitis. In this talk, I will discuss our insights into the dynamic herpesvirus particle and its robust capacity to invade the nervous system.

Host: Richard Longnecker, PhD, Professor,

Dept. of Microbiology-Immunology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine