The molecular mechanisms by which varicella-zoster virus (VZV) causes a latent infection in human trigeminal and spinal ganglia are not well understood. It is known that VZV establishes latency in ganglia following the primary infection causing varicella (chickenpox), and that the virus may reactivate after years of dormancy to produce herpes zoster (shingles). Two key issues have been the cell...

BACKGROUND A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial that involved 38,546 subjects > or =60 years old demonstrated efficacy of a high-potency live-attenuated Oka/Merck varicella-zoster virus (VZV) vaccine. The trial included an immunology substudy to determine the relationship of VZV-specific immune responses to vaccination and clinical outcome. METHODS The immunology substudy enrolled 1395 su...

AIM To investigate the sensitivity of various laboratory approaches in the diagnosis of herpes zoster from patient serum. METHODS Paired sera from 53 consecutive adult patients with acute herpes zoster were tested for the presence of varicella-zoster virus (VZV) antibodies. All acute sera were tested subsequently by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the presence of VZV DNA. In add...

Varicella zoster virus (VZV) is an exclusively human highly neurotropic alphaherpesvirus. To date, VZV has been shown to induce apoptosis, primarily through the intrinsic pathway in different cell types, except for neurons in which the virus becomes latent. This review summarizes current studies of varicella-induced apoptosis in non‑neuronal cells. Future studies are proposed to determine wheth...

Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) is a herpesvirus that causes two clinically distinct forms of disease, varicella (chickenpox) and herpes zoster (shingles). Primary VZV infection results in characteristic diffuse vesicular rash of chickenpox. Although vaccination substantially attenuates disease manifestations, significant complications such as secondary soft tissue infection, encephalitis, and pne...

conclusions in this region, a significant proportion of children are susceptible to vzv, severe varicella and it’s complications at older ages. it is recommended for varicella vaccine to be added to routine childhood vaccination programs and also to be injected to susceptible adolescents. negative history of varicella would be a predictor of varicella antibody status in children and young adult...

The varicella-zoster virus (VZV) is a virus of the subfamily of Alfavirus responsible for infections with different clinical presentations. Primary infection occurs more frequently in the pediatric age presented as chickenpox. The reactivation of the infection occurs mainly in immunosuppressed patients, in the form of Herpes-Zoster [1]. Varicella-Zoster virus is associated with severe neurologi...

Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) can complement temperature-sensitive mutants of herpes simplex virus. Of seven mutants tested, two, carrying mutations in the immediate-early ICP4 and ICP27 proteins, were complemented. This complementation was not seen in coinfections with adenovirus type 5 or cytomegalovirus. Following transfection into CV-1 cells, a DNA fragment containing the VZV short repeat se...

We transitioned laboratory-developed PCR assays for herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), HSV-2, and varicella-zoster virus (VZV) to the BD Max system by using BD Max open system reagents. After optimization, the agreement with the reference PCR assay was 100% (123/123) for HSV-1, 96.7% (119/123) for HSV-2, and 100% (60/60) for VZV using retrospective clinical samples.

Varicella-Zoster virus (VZV) is a herpesvirus that becomes latent in sensory neurons after primary infection (chickenpox) and subsequently may reactivate to cause zoster. The mechanism by which this virus maintains latency, and the factors involved, are poorly understood. Here we demonstrate, by immunohistochemical analysis of ganglia obtained at autopsy from seropositive patients without clini...