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Chicken pox and shingles
Chicken pox and shingles









chicken pox and shingles

They found that only one VZV RNA transcript was detectable in all the neurons, which they called the latency-associated transcript. The researchers extracted nucleic acid from the neurons and sequenced the RNA, comparing it with models of the VZV genome.

chicken pox and shingles

Of the 18 donors, the neurons of 13 of them were infected with both herpes simplex and VZV, enabling the researchers to compare their findings against the better-understood model of herpes simplex. To overcome this challenge, the researchers developed a new technique using human neurons that were obtained very quickly after the patients had died (6 hours on average), when previous studies had shown that fewer post mortem changes had occurred in the tissues. Previous studies were unable to identify how VZV latency works, partly because, unlike the herpes simplex viruses, which are also alphaherpesviruses that remains dormant after initial infection, there are no animal models of VZV latency. Our discovery provides an important step forward towards control of this virus," said the study's lead author, Professor Judith Breuer (UCL Infection & Immunity). "It's been more than 30 years since VZV latency in human nerve cells was first described, and ever since then, researchers have been trying to identify the factor that causes the virus to remain latent. Most adults worldwide are infected with VZV, which stays dormant after chickenpox has cleared, but can reactivate later in life - in about 30% of people - as shingles, which causes both a painful rash and the potential for more serious complications including debilitating pain, blindness or a stroke. A research team led by UCL and Erasmus University has found a missing piece to the puzzle of why the virus that causes chickenpox and shingles can remain dormant for decades in human cells.ĭescribed in a recent paper in Nature Communications, researchers discovered there is an RNA transcript in the varicella zoster virus (VZV), that continues to remain active after a person has recovered from chickenpox.











Chicken pox and shingles