This $769,115 Project Grant awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) will advance scientific understanding of how neurotropic viruses, including flaviviruses and alphaviruses, can directly enter the central nervous system (CNS) and cause severe illness. The principal investigators will explore the role of newly described meningeal structures, called arachnoid cuff exit (ACE) points, in...
This $658,273 Project Grant awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) supports research to understand how the herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) activates and inhibits the NLRP1 inflammasome pathway, and to investigate the role of the NLRP1 immune sensor in antiviral defense in human skin. The research aims to: 1) determine how the HSV-1 protein ICP0 activates stress-activated protein...
This federal Project Grant award for $651,387, provided by the National Institute on Aging (CFDA 93.866 Aging Research) to the University of Colorado-Denver, aims to investigate how pathogenic exosomes produced during herpes zoster (shingles) infections can increase the risk of vascular dementia. The key objectives are to: 1) analyze the content of exosomes isolated from zoster patients over 12 months to identify vascular-damaging proteins and miRNAs, and 2) determine the mechanisms by which...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), provides $147,656 to the University of Colorado-Denver to conduct research aimed at elucidating the mechanisms driving the development of chronic Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) arthritis. The primary objectives of the research are to: (I) define a viral reservoir in macrophages in joint-associated tissue, (II) assess...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), provides $215,810 to the University of Virginia to investigate the role of certain viral proteins in degrading host proteins within neurons during Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 (HSV-1) infection. The research aims to identify the specific host proteins degraded in neurons and understand how the viral proteins ICP0 and...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), provides $187,398 to investigate the role of the programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) in regulating dendritic cell migration and T cell priming. The primary objectives are to: 1) Define which extracellular interactions between PD-L1 and CD80 regulate dendritic cell migration, and 2) Determine how PD-L1 intracellular signals...
This federal Project Grant award of $883,577 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) aims to develop and characterize a model of herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) latency in human sensory neurons. The primary objectives are to: 1) Comprehensively characterize the model system, focusing on viral gene expression, the epigenetic composition of the viral genome, and the role of a cell stress...
This Project Grant award, valued at $2,488,687, was provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855). The grant supports research to investigate the impact of gammaherpesvirus latency on host immune responses to subsequent pulmonary infections and the influence of the microbiome on viral latency establishment and maintenance. The principal investigator aims to define the role of viral latency on...
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) awarded a $288,908 Project Grant under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) to Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) to investigate the mechanisms by which the intracellular bacterium Anaplasma phagocytophilum exploits the host cell's regulated exocytosis pathway for egress and reinfection. The research aims to interrogate the role of intracellular calcium and sphingosine-1-phosphate signaling in...
This $2,736,236 five-year Project Grant award from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (CFDA 93.855 - Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research) supports research into how the Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) establishes and maintains latent infections in neurons. Specifically, the University of Virginia research team will investigate the role of a histone modification called H2AK119Ub1 in promoting HSV latency and enabling reactivation from...
This $939,084 Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), supports research to investigate how varicella zoster virus (VZV)-infected human sensory neurons release non-infectious exosomes that suppress the host's antiviral immune response and promote inflammation in cells. The primary objectives are to determine the pathogenic contents of exosomes released from VZV-infected neurons and assess how these exosomes alter the transcriptional and proteomic profiles of human spinal cord astrocytes and brain vascular cells, in terms of antiviral immune evasion and inflammation. This research aims to elucidate a novel mechanism by which VZV infection can cause pathologies distal from the original infection site, thereby expanding the understanding of virus-associated diseases. The award period is from June 2024 to April 2026 and will be performed by the University of Colorado-Denver, a major public research university with extensive federal research funding and contracting experience.