Editorial introduction for Seminars in Immunopathology special issue on “Immune modulation, properties and models of CMV”

Excerpt

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a highly clinically relevant pathogen. It efficiently infects large proportion of the adult population around the world, and it establishes lifelong latency. In healthy adults, the virus usually does not cause serious or long-lasting injuries; however, in immunocompromised or immune-suppressed patients (like transplant recipients), infection with HCMV can cause serious illnesses and affect many organs. This is also true in cases of congenital infections. In order to introduce novel antiviral interventions and perhaps even therapeutic agents, a better understanding of the viral life cycle, its tropism, and the ways by which it escapes immune elimination is mandatory. In this special issue of Seminars in Immunopathology, we attempt to establish a multifaceted integrative view of the virus and discuss future implications of our current knowledge. …