Human Cytomegalovirus Utilizes Extracellular Vesicles To Enhance Virus Spread

Abstract

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a herpesvirus that leads to serious health consequences in neonatal or immunocompromised patients. Clinical management of infection in these at-risk groups remains a serious concern even with approved antiviral therapies available. It is necessary to increase our understanding of the cellular changes that occur during infection and their importance to virus spread. This may help to identify new targets during infection that will lead to the development of novel treatment strategies. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) represent an important method of intercellular communication in the human host. This study finds that HCMV manipulates this pathway to increase the efficiency of virus spread to uninfected cells. This finding defines a new layer of host manipulation induced by HCMV infection that leads to enhanced virus spread.