MOSCOW, 27 Jun — RIA Novosti. German and British biologists have decoded the genome of herpes simplex virus, which turned out to be much more complicated than previously thought. The results were published in the journal Nature Communications.
herpes simplex Virus type 1 (HSV-1) is perhaps the most common among people virus. According to various sources, the HSV-1 infected from 60 to 95 percent of the total adult population of the world.
When injected into the human body herpes simplex virus remains there for life. He may not declare itself for a long time, becoming active only under special circumstances, such as weakening of the immune system, hypothermia, stress and others.
most people Have HSV-1 manifests itself in the form accompanied by an unpleasant itching rash on the lips or under the nose, called “first cold”. But in some cases infections associated with this virus can have serious consequences. For example, HSV-1 can cause herpes encephalitis, which often leads to irreversible brain damage or life-threatening pneumonia in patients in intensive care units.
Until now, scientists assumed that the genome of HSV-1 is not so complicated, and there are about 80 so-called open reading frames (ORF) — the sequence of nucleotides in DNA that could potentially encode a protein.
a new study, which was conducted by German and British genetics showed that they are much more, namely 284. This increase in ORF due to the fact that scientists were able to identify hundreds of new viral transcripts — RNA molecules resulting from transcription of the expression of the corresponding gene or DNA sequence.
“the New findings now allow us to study individual genes of the virus are much more detailed than ever before” — are in the press release, würzburg University, Julius and Maximilian (JMU) in Bavaria, the head of research, Professor, Department of Virology Dalkena Lars (Lars Dölken).
Researchers from JMU, along with colleagues from the Center for molecular medicine the name of max delbrück in Berlin, Cambridge University, England Munich University named Ludwig-Maximilians used in their work a wide range of new approaches of systems biology, including methods of quantitative proteomics and reverse genetics to whole cells.
to make all data readily available to perception, the authors have developed a special visualization program capable of showing the results-at any level — from a complete genome to a resolution of one nucleotide.
data was important for a better understanding of the virus itself. According to researchers, they will have a specific practical application, for example, for the development of oncolytic viruses based on HSV-1. These are viruses that are used in the immunological therapy of certain cancers, such as malignant melanoma. This area of Oncology has called virotherapy.
