New Human Herpesvirus 8 Data Have Been Reported by Investigators at University of Florida (Hypoxia and Hif-1a Promote Lytic de Novo Kshv Infection).

A recent study conducted by investigators at the University of Florida explores the impact of different stress conditions on the primary infection of the oncogenic Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV). The researchers found that hypoxia, a natural stress condition, promotes lytic reactivation and viral replication following de novo KSHV infection. They also discovered that hypoxia reduces repressive heterochromatin and promotes the formation of transcriptionally permissive chromatin on the viral DNA during infection. Silencing hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1 alpha) during hypoxia prevents lytic KSHV infection, while overexpression of HIF-1 alpha under normoxia drives lytic KSHV infection. Overall, these findings suggest that HIF-1 alpha accumulation induced by hypoxia prevents latency and promotes lytic KSHV infection. [Extracted from the article]