Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is one of the severe opportunistic infections faced by severely immunocompromised patients. High viral loads cause tissue-invasive disease and expose to death or various indirect effects. Substantial progress was made in monitoring active infection, and antiviral drugs were developed. However, dose-limiting toxicities and genotypic resistance limit therapeutic efficacy and vaccine development is hampered by the complex biology of the virus. In this issue of EMBO Molecular Medicine, Kandalla et al (2023) suggest an innovative strategy using the cytokine macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) whose clinical development was left behind two decades ago. By stimulating an endogenous immune defense mechanism, M-CSF promotes viral clearance in a mouse model of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, without impairing stem cell engraftment. These results reactivate the interest in the potential therapeutic use of this cytokine.

中文翻译：

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巨噬细胞集落刺激因子作为对抗巨细胞病毒的武器

巨细胞病毒（CMV）感染是严重免疫功能低下患者面临的严重机会性感染之一。高病毒载量会导致组织侵袭性疾病并导致死亡或各种间接影响。在监测活动性感染方面取得了实质性进展，并开发出了抗病毒药物。然而，剂量限制性毒性和基因型耐药性限制了治疗效果，并且病毒的复杂生物学阻碍了疫苗的开发。在本期《EMBO 分子医学》中，Kandalla等人(2023) 提出了一种使用细胞因子巨噬细胞集落刺激因子 (M-CSF) 的创新策略，该因子的临床开发在二十年前就被抛在了后面。通过刺激内源性免疫防御机制，M-CSF 促进造血干细胞移植小鼠模型中的病毒清除，而不损害干细胞植入。这些结果重新激发了人们对该细胞因子潜在治疗用途的兴趣。