- A new study is the first to prove that the Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV-1) deliberately reshapes the human genome and reorganises infected cells within an hour of infection.
- The virus compacts and densifies human DNA to access host genes essential for its reproduction, a previously unknown mechanism of manipulation.
- Researchers discovered that blocking a single host cell enzyme, topoisomerase I, completely prevented the virus from rearranging the human genome and stopped infection in cell culture.
- This finding offers a potential new therapeutic target to control HSV-1, which affects nearly four billion people worldwide.
- HSV-1, while often causing benign cold sores, can lead to severe complications in rare cases and has been linked to dementia in older adults.
IN FULL
Cold sore virus takes over human DNA within just one hour, study finds
