Dr. Jeffrey Bergelson is quick to point out that his research at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is not to advance a treatment for infection diseases, but rather simply to understand them better. Still, his study team is making significant progress in understanding how cell receptors act as gatekeepers for infectious viruses.
Scientists have identified receptors for many viruses that cause disease, but it isnt always apparent whether the receptors found in the cell cultures actually play a part in the disease process. Using mice genetically engineered to lack a particular receptor in heart and pancreas cells, Bergelson and his crew were able to prevent infection by a common virus that causes potentially serious diseases in humans.
“I think we’re far from applying this to something, but it’s still interesting scientifically,” he says. “You don’t know what someone else is going to find.”
The study, published in the July 23 edition of Cell Host and Microbe, focuses on the coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor (CAR), which Bergelson discovered in 1997.
“It might be possible to identify people who are at risk and something could be done,” says Bergelson, who has been at CHOP for 12 years. “The best thing would be a vaccine against the virus, but maybe it will trigger an immune-mediated disease.”
Source: Jeffrey Bergelson, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Writer: Joe Petrucci