Peptide inhibition of human cytomegalovirus infection

Melnik, Lilia I; Garry, Robert F; Morris, Cindy A

HCMV infection is highly prevalent in the population due to the ability of the virus to efficiently transmit between hosts that harbour and periodically shed the virus. HCMV is transmitted through direct exposure to infected bodily secretions, including saliva, urine and breast milk. Following infection, HCMV enters the bloodstream and spreads to various organs including kidney, liver, spleen, heart, brain, retina, esophagus, inner ear, lungs, colon, and salivary glands [24] . The ability of HCMV to infect a wide variety of cell types is not due to the presence of high plasma levels of extracellular virus, but is primarily due to cell-to-cell transmission between mononuclear phagocytes (possibly macrophages or dendritic cell precursors) and uninfected tissues [25] .