Juliet V. Spencer, PhD. Lab Page

Research Interests

Herpesviruses are large double-stranded DNA viruses that have the ability to establish lifelong infections. In a healthy host, the immune response is sufficient to prevent disease, but the virus is not eliminated. The mechanisms that viruses employ to evade host defenses and establish latency is the focus of research in my laboratory.
Current projects are centered on human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), which causes serious disease in immune compromised individuals and encodes numerous gene products that modulate the host immune system. One of these gene products is a homolog of cellular interleukin-10, a potent regulator of immune responses. Despite having only 27% sequence identity to the human IL-10, cmvIL-10 has potent immunosuppressive properties. Ongoing studies examine the use of cellular signaling pathways hijacked by cmvIL-10, with the hypothesis that the viral cytokine may have evolved distinct properties that are advantageous to virus pathogenesis and persistence. Cell-based techniques such as ELISAs, proliferation assays, and Western blotting are employed to test this hypothesis and better define the biological activities of cmvIL-10. The results of these studies will contribute to our knowledge of virus-host interactions and also shed light on the role of IL-10 in regulation of the immune response.

Publications

Spencer, J.V. 2007. The Cytomegalovirus Homolog of Interleukin-10 Requires Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase Activity for Inhibition of Cytokine Synthesis in Monocytes. J. Virol. 81: 2083-2086.

Spencer, J.V., K.M. Lockridge, P.A. Barry, G. Lin, M. Tsang, M.E.T. Penfold, and T.J. Schall. 2002. Potent Immunosuppressive Activities of Cytomegalovirus- Encoded Interleukin-10. J. Virol. 76: 1285-1292.