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Martine Smit on the cover again

Again, Martine Smit's research is on the cover of a prestigious journal. On November 1st the Journal of Clinical Investigation published the results of the AIMMS - Receptor Biochemistry group and Sergio Lira of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine (New York) about the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV).

HCMV encodes a G protein–coupled receptor, US28, that resembles a constitutively active chemokine receptor. The VU University researchers showed that US28 can cause the development of intestinal dysplasia and cancer in transgenic mice and may facilitate intestinal neoplasia in human.  The relationship between this virus and cancer has been shown previously by this group in in vitro experiments. The present study confirmed these results in vivo.

Human CMV infects millions of people worldwide, and is generally asymptomatic. It becomes in an active mood  in immunocompetent hosts (for example in people having a lower resistence due to infections, stress, etc.). Also in the mice investigated by Smit and her co-workers, the tumours grew even faster when the mice suffered from an infection. The results form an important step towards anti-cancer therapy.

The cover of the Journal of Clinical Investigation showed a cross section through a murine colonic tumor stained for DAPI (blue), pan-keratin (green), and Ki67 (pink).

Go to the website of JCI or download the pdf www.jci.org/articles/view/42563/pdf 

J Clin Invest. 2010;120(11):3969–3978 doi:10.1172/JCI42563