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SAN ANTONIO (May 20, 2011) - A team of researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio has pinned down an important mechanism controlling the growth of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus.
It eventually could mean that inexpensive antioxidants and anti-inflammatory drugs might potentially be used
to prevent the flare-up of a type of cancer common in AIDS patients.
The discovery, published online Thursday in PLoS Pathogens, a top-ranked infectious disease journal, bodes well
for the prevention and treatment of Kaposi's sarcoma, said Shou-Jiang Gao, PhD, the H-E-B Distinguished Chair for Cancer Research and a
professor in the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. That is especially true for
patients in economically disadvantaged areas with high HIV infection rates, like sub-Saharan Africa.
"This is a limited laboratory and a mouse model study, so of course there is much more research to be done," said Dr. Gao, the
study's lead investigator. "But it is certainly very promising."
Dr. Gao has published several papers on Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), which is a risk factor for the cancer. After
the initial infection, KSHV is latent in the body until it is reactivated. That reactivation contributes to the development of
malignancies, including a type of lymphoma and Kaposi's sarcoma, the most common cancer in untreated AIDS patients.
While different factors are known to reactivate the virus, until now the common mechanism controlling this process has been a mystery.
Gao and his team show that the reactive oxygen species (ROS) hydrogen peroxide, a common factor produced during inflammation, stress
and aging, as well as other physiological conditions such as diabetes, induces KSHV reactivation.
They also found that a common nutritional supplement, N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) also effectively inhibits KSHV replication
in mice with lymphoma, significantly prolonging their lifespan. And in a cell culture, KSHV's growth was limited by NAC, as well as by
a common enzyme called catalase and the antioxidant glutathione, all of which are capable of reducing the ROS level.
"The discovery of this novel mechanism of KSHV reactivation indicates that antioxidants and anti-inflammation drugs
could be promising preventive and therapeutic agents in KSHV and its related malignancies," Dr. Gao said.
Gao's team includes Drs. Fengchun Ye, Fuchu Zhou, Xiamen Lei, and Moravia Guadalupe, as well as Roble G. Bedolla, Tiffany
Jones and Tao Kang.
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The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio , one of the country's leading health
sciences universities, ranks in the top 3 percent of all institutions worldwide receiving federal funding. Research and other
sponsored program activity totaled $228 million in fiscal year 2010. The university's schools of medicine, nursing,
dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced approximately 26,000 graduates.
The $744 million operating budget supports eight campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg.
For more information on the many ways "We make lives better®," visit www.uthscsa.edu .
Contact:
Elizabeth Allen , (210) 450-2020
"Reproduced with permission - The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio"
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
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