Latency is the process that allows a herpes virus to wait silently in cells of organisms it infects, then reactivate and repeatedly attack the host and spread infection. The HSV-1 virus doesn t just infect the eye and then die like most viruses. These subsequent eye infections can cause severe corneal scarring leading to loss of vision. Said Anthony B. Nesburn, M. D., Medical Director of both the Ophthalmology Research Laboratories at Cedars-Sinai and The Discovery Fund for Eye Research, If we could understand the mechanism that causes the HSV virus to lay dormant and periodically reoccur to cause new outbreaks of the disease, he hypothesized, we could stop those harmful reoccurrences from happening. Science Magazine Findings Our Science Magazine paper looked at apoptosis, or programmed cell death, said Dr. Wechsler as he summarized their latest milestone.
Cells die as a natural part of our body s processes.
Also, if we get an infection, our immune system works to kill the diseased cells, explained Wechsler. The scientists learned that apoptosis occurred at a significantly lower rate when the LAT gene was present. They concluded that the LAT gene was involved in keeping the cells from dying and did have a function in guaranteeing latency. The ocular herpes laboratory continues to search for answers. Said Wechsler, Our next step is to investigate how to keep the LAT gene from causing the virus to become latent while at the same time keeping the body from triggering its normal apoptosis, that is, killing the LAT infected cells.