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 |
Search Criteria: human herpesvirus 6 OR human herpesvirus 6A or human herpesvirus 6B ORHHV-6 OR HHV-6A OR HHV-6B OR HHV6 OR HHV6A OR HHV6B OR ciHHV-6 OR ciHHV-6A OR ciHHV-6B OR ciHHV6 OR ciHHV6a OR ciHHV6b OR iciHHV-6 OR iciHHV-6A OR iciHHV-6B OR iciHHV6 OR iciHHV6a OR iciHHV6b