A University of Idaho biologist’s research may lead to an antiviral therapy to combat a virus that is linked to birth defects, as well as an increased understanding of how pathogens defeat cellular defense systems.
Ricky Scuderi | Argonaut
Lee Fortunato in the Department of Biological Sciences analyzes a lab sample Thursday in the Life Sciences building. Fortunato’s recent work could lead to an antiviral therapy that could fight cytomegalovirus (CMV), a common birth defect.
Lee Fortunato, an associate professor with the College of Science, has been researching human cytomegalovirus for more than 15 years. She started working on HCMV at UC San Diego. She worked with BK virus as a graduate student and became interested in virology.
“I knew I wanted to continue working in a viral system, but I wanted to work in something that had a little bit more downstream effect,” Fortunato said.
She said she knew she wanted to work in a virus that had more detrimental impact on society, and CMV is one of the major causes of birth defects.
Fortunato hypothesized the virus was sequestering cellular repair proteins next to its viral DNA allowing the virus to repair its DNA and compromising the cell’s ability to repair itself. In order to test the hypothesis, she damaged an infected cell and an uninfected cell using ultraviolet light. She then observed the repair rates of the cellular and viral DNA.
“We’ve shown that, at least with UV irradiation of an infected cell, the viral genome is preferentially repaired, but the cellular genome is not repaired,” Fortunato said. “That could have ramifications for an infected fetus.”
Fortunato said in the studies done in the lab the virus causes damage to two specific sites of the human genome which could be associated with birth defects, but they haven’t yet proved the virus does the same thing inside a developing fetus.
“That’s really something we are trying to figure out — is it the same thing as what we see going on in the lab that’s happening in the mom?” Fortunato said.
She said researchers have been working on a vaccine treatment for CMV for a long time, but it is still probably five to 10 years away.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each year about 40,000 babies are born with CMV in the U.S., and about 8,000 children suffer from permanent problems due to CMV that they were either born with or developed later. About 80 percent born with congenital CMV suffer no problems. In the U.S., one to four women out of a hundred are infected with CMV for the first time during pregnancy, and 33 percent of these women pass the virus onto their children. Another problem is that individuals who contract one strain of HCMV have it for life, and they can contract other strains, increasing the risk pregnant women will pass the virus to their child.
The CDC recommends pregnant women avoid kissing their older children on the lips or sharing utensils to avoid contracting the virus from them. They should also wash their hands frequently, especially after changing diapers.
According to the CDC, approximately 50 to 80 percent of adults will have contracted CMV by the time they are 40 years
old. While most people will have little to no problems when they contract the virus, it can have serious consequences for people with weakened immune systems.
Andrew Deskins can be reached at [email protected]