Christian Paul Nixon Sciences
The Role of ORF69 in Lytic Reactivation of Kaposi’s Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus
Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) establishes lifelong infections and can cause various cancers in immunosuppressed individuals. KSHV lies dormant in infected individuals’ cells and reactivates intermittently to cause disease and promote transmission. Current scientific literature lacks an understanding of the KSHV gene open reading frame 69 (ORF69). In this project, Christian will employ a two-step mutagenesis technique in E. coli to generate ORF69 knockout and revertant mutants in a KSHV bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC). After transfecting a Kaposi’s sarcoma cell line with the BAC vectors, inducing lytic reactivation, and infecting 293T cells with supernatant from the induced cells, Christian will be able to determine if ORF69 is essential in the KSHV life cycle. The results have the potential to inform the development of novel drugs and immunotherapies for KSHV transmission and pathogenesis.
