Role for tumor necrosis factor alpha in murine cytomegalovirus transcriptional reactivation in latently infected lungs.

ABSTRACT: Interstitial pneumonia is a major clinical manifestation of primary or recurrent cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in immunocompromised recipients of a bone marrow transplant. In a murine model, lungs were identified as a prominent site of CMV latency and recurrence. Pulmonary latency of murine CMV is characterized by high viral genome burden and a low incidence of variegated immediate-early (IE) gene expression, reflecting a sporadic activity of the major IE promoters (MIEPs) and enhancer. The enhancer-flanking promoters MIEP1/3 and MIEP2 are switched on and off during latency in a ratio of approximately 2:1. MIEP1/3 latency-associated activity generates the IE1 transcript of the ie1/3 transcription unit but not the alternative splicing product IE3 that encodes the essential transactivator

SUBMITTER: Simon CO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC538715 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature