FIGURE 7.

A hypothetical function for the UL146 gene product vCXCL1 in CMV biology. A CMV-infected endothelial cell expressing vCXCL1 recruits primary effector cells such as neutrophils and infect them. After infection, the neutrophils carry the virus to and infect endothelial cells at other sites, thus ensuring a constant pool of CMV-infected endothelial cells. For simplicity only CXCR1 and CXCR2 and no other chemokine receptors are shown on the neutrophils. Green circles, CMV-encoded vCXCL1; red circles, human ELR-positive chemokines exemplified by CXCL8/IL-8.