Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics

Vaccines and Immunotherapy for Epstein Barr Virus, Cytomegalovirus and Related Human Herpesviruses

Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics is pleased to welcome you to submit your research to the Article Collection "Vaccines and Immunotherapy for Epstein Barr Virus, Cytomegalovirus and Related Human Herpesviruses".

Human herpesviruses establish lifelong persistence, undergo periodic reactivation, and cause a wide spectrum of diseases across the lifespan, ranging from asymptomatic infection to congenital disease, infectious mononucleosis, end organ complications in immunocompromised hosts, lymphoproliferative disorders, and virus associated malignancies. Among them, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and cytomegalovirus are of particular importance because they exemplify the scientific and clinical challenges of preventing and controlling persistent viral infection. At the same time, rapid progress in viral entry biology, latency and reactivation, immune evasion, systems immunology, monoclonal antibodies, adoptive cellular therapy, and new vaccine platforms has created fresh opportunities for both prophylactic and therapeutic intervention. This Article Collection aims to bring together cutting-edge work on the immunology, vaccines, and immune based treatment strategies for human herpesviruses, with a central focus on EBV and cytomegalovirus.

This topic is timely because major unmet needs remain despite decades of research. For EBV, there is growing interest in prevention of infectious mononucleosis, transplant related complications, and EBV associated cancers, alongside renewed attention to the long-term consequences of infection and the immune mechanisms that shape disease susceptibility and progression. For cytomegalovirus, congenital infection, pregnancy related transmission, and disease in transplant and other vulnerable populations continue to drive the need for better vaccines, immune correlates of protection, biomarkers, and translational strategies. More broadly, studies on herpes simplex viruses, Kaposi sarcoma associated herpesvirus, and other human herpesviruses continue to reveal fundamental principles of immune control, latency, tissue tropism, and immune escape. A focused Collection in this area would provide a timely venue for integrating mechanistic, translational, and clinical advances across a field that is rapidly evolving.

We welcome submissions spanning basic, translational, and clinical research relevant to herpesvirus immunity and immune intervention. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, protective humoral and cellular immunity, mucosal immunity, antigen discovery and immune correlates of protection, vaccine design and platforms, adjuvants, therapeutic vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, adoptive T cell therapy, immune monitoring, biomarkers, latency and reactivation, immune evasion, host pathogen interactions, pediatric and congenital infection, transplantation and immunocompromised hosts, EBV-associated malignancies, CMV pathogenesis, comparative herpesvirus immunology, and computational or systems approaches to antigen and vaccine evaluation. Original research articles, reviews, brief reports, methods papers, and perspectives are all of interest, subject to the journal’s article types and scope.

Keywords: Epstein Barr Virus; EBV; Cytomegalovirus; CMV; Herpesvirus vaccines; Viral immunology; Immunotherapy

Meet the Guest Advisor

Dr. Ran Wang is a researcher at Beijing Children’s Hospital, Capital Medical University, with research interests in viral immunology, pediatric infectious diseases, and translational vaccine science. His work focuses on the pathogenesis, immune responses, and prevention strategies of clinically important human viruses, particularly Epstein-Barr virus andflaviviruses. He has extensive experience in basic and translational studies spanning viral immunopathogenesis, biomarker discovery, and vaccine related research. Through this Article Collection, he aims to promote interdisciplinary advances in herpesvirus vaccines, immune mechanisms, and emerging immune based therapies.