New HHV-6 NIH grants awarded in 2017

See full list of HHV-6 NIH grants below.

Congratulations to Margo  Mayer-Proschel, PhD,  and her team at the University of Rochester who were awarded a grant to develop a new animal model to study the impact of latent HHV-6A on the remyelination process. The group will develop a transgenic mouse model that can express the HHV-6A latency protein U94. This will permit them to study the issue of whether HHV-6A infection of myelinating oligodendrocyte progenitor cells can limit the ability of these cells to migrate to the site of myelin damage and ultimately impair the repair processes after an insult. Dr. Mayer-Proschel, Dr. David Mock and associates recently published a paper on this subject (Campbell 2017). Dr. Mock was also funded by the MS society for a study of HHV-6A U94 and remyelination. Read the NIH grant summary here.

Joel Dudley, PhD at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai was awarded a grant to study viral genes that appear to promote disease progression. HHV6-A and HHV-7, but not EBV, CMV or HSV1, were listed as key topics in his grant proposal. Dr. Dudley was recently appointed as the inaugural director of the Institute for Next Generation Healthcare at Mount Sinai. Read the grant summary here.  Last year, Chinese investigators reported that HHV-6A infection of astrocytes is associated with the gene expression found in several CNS diseases including Alzheimers, glioma, and MS (Shao 2016). A brain tissue study found HHV-6A/B DNA in 70% of Alzheimer’s brains but only 40% of controls (Lin 2002).

Dr. Benjamin Pinsky of Stanford University was awarded a grant to develop a whole genome sequencing platform for HHV-6, CMV, EBV, Adenovirus, and BK virus in order to evaluate immunotherapy for multi-virus specific cytotoxic T cells. This will allow them to determine whether “escape mutants” develop that might ultimately result in failure of T cell therapy. Read a summary of the grant proposal here.

In late 2016, Amy Hudson, PhD, was funded to study U21 in roseoloviruses as well as lysosomal trafficking for HHV-7 U21.  See the description of her two NIH grants here and here.

Other grants that are related to HHV-6 (some only tangentially) are listed below. Funding for HHV-6 lags far behind funding for CMV, EBV and HHV-8.

Project Title Administering  IC Activity Support Year PI / Project Leader Organization Name Fiscal Year FY Total Cost
INTEGRATED UNDERSTANDING OF COMPLEX VIRAL NETWORK BIOLOGY IN ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE NIA R56 1 DUDLEY; EHRLICH; GANDY ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI 2017  $844,112
FUNCTION AND MECHANISM OF U21 IN THE ROSEOLOVIRUSES NIAID R21 1 HUDSON MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN 2017  $231,000
NEW ANIMAL MODEL TO STUDY THE IMPACT OF LATENT HUMAN HERPESVIUS 6 (HHV6) INFECTION ON THE REMYELINATION PROCESS NINDS R03 1 MAYER-PROSCHEL UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER 2017  $77,000
DEVELOPMENT OF A MULTI-VIRUS; WHOLE GENOME SEQUENCING PLATFORM FOR POST-TRANSPLANTATION VIRUS CHARACTERIZATION NIAID R21 1 PINSKY STANFORD UNIVERSITY 2017  $235,500
INTEGRATION AND EPIGENETIC REGULATION OF THE HHV-6 GENOME NIAID R21 2 FRIETZE; KAUFER UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT & ST AGRIC COLLEGE 2017  $172,420
SUBVERSION OF LYSOSOMAL TRAFFICKING BY HHV-7 U21 NIGMS R01 2 HUDSON MEDICAL COLLEGE OF WISCONSIN 2017  $322,399
HUMAN HERPESVIRUS 6 IN LOWER RESPIRATORY TRACT DISEASE AND CHROMOSOMAL INTEGRATION AFTER HEMATOPOIETIC CELL TRANSPLANTATION NIAID K23 3 HILL FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER RESEARCH CENTER 2017  $190,557
PROTEOMICS PATHWAY DISCOVERY NIAID U19 4 CHEN UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL 2017
INNATE RECOGNITION OF HUMAN HERPESVIRUSES NIAID U19 4 DAMANIA UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL 2017
PROTEIN PURIFICATION AND BIOCHEMISTRY NIAID U19 4 DUNCAN UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL 2017
T CELL AND TRANSGENIC CORE NIAID U19 4 HUSEBY UNIV OF MASSACHUSETTS MED SCH WORCESTER 2017
CD4 T CELL RESPNSE TO HUMAN HERPESVIRUS-6 NIAID U19 4 STERN UNIV OF MASSACHUSETTS MED SCH WORCESTER 2017
INTERFACE OF MEMORY CD4 T CELLS AND INNATE IMMUNITY IN VIRAL RESPONSE NIAID U19 4 SWAIN UNIV OF MASSACHUSETTS MED SCH WORCESTER 2017
DISCOVERY OF NEW INNATE IMMUNE PATHWAYS IN VIRAL RECOGNITION NIAID U19 4 TING UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL 2017  $2,863,677
CD4 T CELLS IN ANTI-VIRAL IMMUNITY AND IMMUNE PATHOLOGY NIAID U19 4 WELSH UNIV OF MASSACHUSETTS MED SCH WORCESTER 2017  $2,375,202
DISCOVERY OF NOVEL MOLECULAR ABNORMALITIES UNDERLYING NON-LESIONAL FOCAL EPILEPSY NINDS R01 4 WINAWER; CRINO COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES 2017  $318,924
SPECIFICITY; PHENOTYPE AND FUNCTION OF PANCREATIC CD8 T CELLS IN HUMAN TYPE 1 DIABETES NIAID R01 6 VON HERRATH LA JOLLA INST FOR ALLERGY & IMMUNOLGY 2017  $450,000
INFECTIONS IN HEMATOPOIETIC CELL TRANSPLANT RECIPIENTS NHLBI K24 8 BOECKH FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER RESEARCH CENTER 2017  $116,481
STRESS EFFECTS ON VIRUS PROTEIN INDUCED INFLAMMATION AND SICKNESS BEHAVIOR NIAID R01 8 WILLIAMS; ARIZA OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY 2017  $568,411
CONSEQUENCES OF PROLONGED FEBRILE SEIZURES IN CHILDHOOD NINDS R37 16 SHINNAR ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE, INC 2017  $1,804,473

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