Undergraduate Research & Scholarships

Shayla Nguyen Eslampour Sciences

Investigation of a Human Complement Component 3 (C3) Virally Encoded Ligand in Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV)

Scholars Journal

Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a ubiquitous herpesvirus in humans with 60–90% global prevalence especially in immunocompromised persons. Current medications to treat HCMV infections (Ganciclovir) have toxic effects and risk the potential to select for drug resistance. HCMV has evolved to evade the human immune system, yet little is known about how HCMV interacts with the complement system. In this study, Shayla will use a yeast-two-hybrid screen using an HCMV gene library to identify protein-protein interactions with human C3, a protein with a central role in the complement system and contributes to innate immunity. Following identification, Shayla will characterize protein-protein interactions in the context of how C3 functions in the human immune response to HCMV infection. Identification of HCMV-complement interactions could potentially inform the development of vaccines and novel drugs.