Herpes virus rearranges telomeres to improve viral replication

A team of scientists, led by researchers at The Wistar Institute, has found that an infection with herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) causes rearrangements in telomeres, small stretches of DNA that serve as protective ends to chromosomes. The findings, which will be published in the Dec. 24 edition of the journal Cell Reports, show that this manipulation of telomeres may explain how viruses like herpes are able to successfully replicate while also revealing more about the protective role that telomeres play against other viruses. “We know that telomeres play a very important part in the lifespan of a cell,” said Paul M. Lieberman, Ph.D., Hilary Koprowski, M.D., Endowed Professor and Professor and Program Leader of the Gene Expression and Regulation Program at The Wistar Institute. “We wanted to know whether they also play a role in either viral replication or protection from viruses, and our findings suggest – at least in...