Virology Commons^™

Chemokines And Peptides That Promote And Inhibit Cmv Entry, Elisabeth Anne Pitt

Masters Theses

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) causes morbidity and mortality in congenitally infected newborns, transplant recipients, and AIDS patients. Currently, there is no approved CMV vaccine to address these issues. In an effort to develop an alternative treatment to CMV we tested our hypothesis that heparan sulfate binding D-peptides would be effective against multiple HCMV strains in vitro and it would be effective in vivo against murine CMV (MCMV) (Chapter 1). We show that the D-peptide is able to reduce CMV infection in vitro and in vivo. Another approach to combating CMV infections is to neutralize pathogenic factors that contribute to CMV …