#29 – Cytomegalovirus: the Quiet Lifelong Passenger

This time it's a herpes virus that almost all of us carry: human cytomegalovirus (CMV). Florian Krammer explains why this large DNA virus with over 200 proteins is so hard to pin down, how it deposits its genome as an episome inside immune cells and stays hidden there for decades. In healthy people the infection usually goes unnoticed, but in transplant patients or pregnant women it can cause serious harm, from organ inflammation to birth defects. The episode also covers reactivation under stress (including astronauts on the ISS and long COVID), associations with cancer, Alzheimer's and immune ageing, and why decades of vaccine development have so far come up short. US CDC information about CMV: https://www.cdc.gov/cytomegalovirus/about/index.html Review article about CMV vaccines (slightly outdated, January 2025): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11684802/ Nature article about CMV (and herpesvirus) reactivation in COVID-19 and Long COVID patients: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42557313/ +++++ You can support the podcast via our German Steady page: https://steady.page/virologisch/ Questions, feedback or topic suggestions? Feel free to contact us at: virological@podcastwerkstatt.com +++++ Krammer laboratory information Krammer Laboratory at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai https://labs.icahn.mssm.edu/krammerlab/ Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Science Outreach and Pandemic Preparedness https://soap.lbg.ac.at/ Ignaz Semmelweis Institute https://semmelweisinstitute.ac.at/ +++++ Conflict of interest statement The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has filed patent applications relating to influenza virus vaccines and therapeutics, SARS-CoV-2 serological assays and NDV-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccines which name me as inventor. Mount Sinai has spun out a company, CastleVax, to commercialize NDV-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and I am named as co-founder and scientific advisory board member of that company. I have previously consulted for Curevac, Merck, Gritstone, Sanofi, Seqirus, GSK and Pfizer and I am currently consulting for 3rd Rock Ventures (US) and Avimex (Mexico). My laboratory has been collaborating in the past with Pfizer on animal models of SARS-CoV-2 and with GlaxoSmithKline and VIR on the development of influenza virus vaccines and therapeutics and we are currently collaborating with Dynavax, Inspirevax and Inimmune on development of influenza virus vaccines. My work in the on immunity and infectious diseases in the US is supported by the National Institutes of Health, but also by FluLab and Tito’s Handmade Vodka. In the past I have also received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, PATH and the US Department of Defense. My work in Austria is supported by the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft and by the Ignaz Semmelweis Institute through the Medical University of Vienna.