Effects of thyroid hormone on HSV-1 gene regulation: implications in the control of viral latency and reactivation

Thyroid hormone (TH) is involved in many biological functions such as animal development, cell differentiation, etc. Variation and/or disruption of plasma TH level often led to abnormalities and physiological disorders. TH exerts the effects through its nuclear receptors (TR). Literature showed that procedures resulted in TH alteration also linked to reactivation of several viruses including Herpes Simplex Virus Type -1 (HSV-1). Bioinformatic analyses revealed a number of putative TH responsive elements (TRE) located in the critical regulatory regions of HSV-1 genes such as thymidine kinase (TK), latency associated transcript (LAT), etc. Studies using neuronal cell lines have provided evidences demonstrating that liganded TR regulated viral gene expression via chromatin modification and controlled viral replication. The removal of TH reversed the inhibition and induced the viral replication previously blocked by TH. These results suggest that TH may have implication to participate in the control of reactivation during HSV-1 latency.