Giving Compass' Take:

• Jake Siegel explains how recent research has revealed that the body's approach to fighting cytomegalovirus is more involved than previously thought, opening up new avenues of research. 

• How can funders work to advance research of this nature? What could this mean for the future of cancer care? 

• Learn how to find and fund scientific research. 

You may not have heard of cytomegalovirus, but the two of you have likely met.

In fact, odds are it’s dozing inside you right now.

Cytomegalovirus, or CMV, infects at least half of all adults worldwide. Most are unaware they’re infected because their healthy immune system keeps it in check. The virus slips into dormancy, becoming a passive and lifelong passenger.

But CMV can roar back to life in anyone with a compromised immune system. The results can be life-threatening, and the virus has plagued bone marrow transplant patients for decades.

A new study in Science may rewrite the story of why the virus wreaks such havoc — and hint at how to stop it.

The research challenges long-held theories about how the body controls CMV. The twist: The immune system’s defense against CMV isn’t a solo performance. After years of studying a mouse model, a team of researchers led by Dr. Geoffrey Hill shows that an unsung actor — antibodies — plays a vital role.

Antibodies are one of the body’s chief ways of defending itself against infection. These Y-shaped proteins can bind, like a lock and key, to bad actors and neutralize them.

Hill’s insight could pave the way for cheaper, safer therapies using antibodies to protect transplant patients against CMV. In a tantalizing hint, the researchers found that a dose of the right antibodies after transplantation can keep the virus dormant in mice, without the need for any other immune cells.

“This is a big deal for the transplant field,” said Hill, the study’s senior author and director of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. “We’re turning dogma on its head, and that could meet the urgent need for inexpensive and nontoxic therapies to improve patient outcomes.”

Read the full article about cytomegalovirus by Jake Siegel at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.