{"id":3285,"date":"2018-05-11T12:02:23","date_gmt":"2018-05-11T16:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mic.med.virginia.edu\/?p=3285"},"modified":"2026-05-21T01:23:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T01:23:25","slug":"mic-group-reveals-how-a-cancer-causing-virus-anchors-itself-to-our-dna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/mic\/2018\/05\/11\/mic-group-reveals-how-a-cancer-causing-virus-anchors-itself-to-our-dna\/","title":{"rendered":"MIC Group reveals how a cancer-causing virus anchors itself to our DNA."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Using a homemade, high-tech microscope, Drs. Mitch Smith, Dean Kedes and Margret Grant and Laboratory technicians Aiola Stoja and Matt Loftus in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have revealed how a cancer-causing virus anchors itself to our DNA. That discovery could pave the way for doctors to cure previously incurable diseases by flushing out viruses, including HPV and Epstein-Barr, that now permanently embed themselves in our cells.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The reason we can\u2019t get rid of these [viruses] is because we can\u2019t figure out a way to get their DNA out of the nucleus, out of the cell,\u201d UVA researcher Dr. Dean H. Kedes said. \u201cThey depend on this \u2018tether\u2019 to remain anchored to the DNA within our cells, and to remain attached even as the cells divide. This tether is a key factor to disrupt in devising a cure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now that scientists can understand this vital infrastructure, they can work to disassemble it. \u201cWithout it,\u201d Kedes noted, \u201cthe virus is going to lose its hold in the body. \u2026 Bad for the virus, but very good for the patient.\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/news.virginia.edu\/content\/uva-reveals-how-cancer-causing-virus-clings-human-dna-bur-sock\">more detail on this research in UVA Today<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Using a homemade, high-tech microscope, Drs. Mitch Smith, Dean Kedes and Margret Grant and Laboratory technicians Aiola Stoja and Matt Loftus in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have revealed how a cancer-causing virus anchors itself to our DNA. That discovery could pave the way for doctors to cure [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1777,"featured_media":3286,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-3285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","tag-delete"],"acf":false,"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>MIC Group reveals how a cancer-causing virus anchors itself to our DNA. - Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/med.virginia.edu\/mic\/2018\/05\/11\/mic-group-reveals-how-a-cancer-causing-virus-anchors-itself-to-our-dna\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MIC Group reveals how a cancer-causing virus anchors itself to our DNA. - Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Using a homemade, high-tech microscope, Drs. 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