from Part III - Pathogenesis, clinical disease, host response, and epidemiology: VZU
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
Primary infection with varicella-zoster virus (VZV) causes varicella manifested by fever and a vesicular rash. During primary infection the virus disseminates in lymphocytes to the skin and other organs, and replicates in and establishes a latent infection in the nervous system (Croen et al., 1988). Early studies demonstrated viral DNA in human trigeminal and dorsal root ganglia by in situ hybridization and Southern blotting (Gilden et al., 1983, 1987; Hyman et al., 1983). More recent studies, using PCR, have demonstrated latent VZV in multiple cranial nerve, dorsal root, and autonomic ganglia (Furuta et al., 1992, 1997; Gilden et al., 2001; Mahalingham et al., 1990). The virus can reactivate from these sites to cause herpes zoster.
The structure of the VZV genome during latency is not certain. Clarke et al. (1995) performed PCR on human ganglia DNA using pairs of primers specific for the unique long internal and terminal regions of the genome. Analysis of the ratio of the signals of the PCR products indicated that the termini of the genome are adjacent during latency, suggesting that the VZV genome is probably episomal.
Site of VZV latency
A number of studies have attempted to identify the cell type in which VZV is latent in human ganglia (Table 38.1). While early studies using in situ hybridization suggested that the virus was present in neurons (Hyman et al., 1983; Gilden et al., 1987), other studies suggested that viral RNA was latent exclusively in satellite cells that surround the neurons (Croen et al., 1988).
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.