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The HHV-6 Foundation is a non-profit entity formed in 2004
to encourage scientific exchange among scientists and to provide pilot grants
for promising scientific and clinical research. An important mission of the
foundation is to disseminate new knowledge about this virus. While clinicians
commonly believe it to be ubiquitous and benign, new research suggests that
chronic HHV-6 infections of the central nervous system (CNS) can become
symptomatic and may respond to treatment with antivirals.
Since there has been very little government support
from the CDC or the National Institute of Health for research studies on the
role of HHV-6 neurological and other diseases, the HHV-6 Foundation attempts to
fill the gap by sponsoring major conferences for scientists, maintaining a
repository of patient samples and key reagents (free to scientists), and funding
pilot grants.
The Foundation sponsors a bi- annual scientific conference on HHV-6.
In May of 2006, The HHV-6 Foundation organized and held the 5th
International Conference on HHV-6 and -7 in Barcelona, Spain. The
conference was attended by over 160 scientists from 19 countries and
included special workshops on the role of HHV-6 in CFS, Epilepsy,
and Multiple Sclerosis. Additionally, the conference included a
keynote presentation by virologist Robert C Gallo. Conference
presentations highlighted the role of HHV-6 in triggering and
perpetuating several diseases of the CNS, including encephalitis,
multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue syndrome, and epilepsy.
The HHV-6 Foundation funds pilot research studies
to develop improved diagnostic techniques and to discover effective
antiviral or immunomodulating therapies for chronic and acute
infections of HHV-6. Since it’s inception, the
Foundation has awarded
sixteen scientific grants. The first priority of the Foundation is
to support efforts to develop better laboratory tests that can
differentiate between chronic active and latent infection. Since the
HHV-6 virus retreats to the brain and other tissues and disappears
from the spinal fluid and serum, finding a sensitive diagnostic tool
is very challenging. Another priority of the foundation is to
support efforts to find compounds that are non-toxic, effective and
appropriate for long-term use. The Foundation has supported several
in-vitro studies of antiviral efficacy at both commercial and
academic laboratories, including a comprehensive screening at the
Rega Institute in Belgium and the Laboratory of Virology at the
University of Paris in France. The results of these studies were
just published in a Foundation sponsored proceeds of the
International Conference on HHV-6 & 7 that appeared in the December
2006 edition of the Journal of Clinical Virology.
Dr. Dharam Ablashi, co-discoverer of the HHV-6
virus, is the Scientific Director of the HHV-6 Foundation and Chair
of the Scientific Advisory Committee. Dr. Ablashi was Coordinator of
DNA Virus Studies at the National Cancer Institute before becoming
Director of Herpesvirus Programs at Advanced Biotechnologies. An
Adjunct Professor in microbiology at the Georgetown University
School of Medicine, he co-edited the book Human Herpesvirus 6
and has authored or co-authored over 300 journal articles on herpes
viruses. He recently finished a term as President of the AACFS or
American Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which he
co-founded. Ablashi also co-founded the Epstein-Barr Association
twenty years ago.
Kristin Loomis is the President, Co-Founder and
Executive Director of the HHV-6 Foundation. She coordinates
conferences and spends most of her time working with the scientific
director to initiate collaborations between scientists and support
efforts of scientists in the field.
Loomis was
instrumental in persuading
Roche to fund Stanford’s placebo controlled trial of Valcyte in
patients with chronic HHV-6 reactivation and CNS dysfunction. She
then dedicated Foundation staff employees
to assist Stanford’s Jose Montoya do the necessary paperwork and
organization to prepare for the trial.
The Foundation has a
Scientific Advisory Board that that includes top HHV-6 virologists
such as Steve Jacobson, Chief of Viral Immunology at the National
Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and Koichi Yamanishi,
Director of the National Institute of Biomedical Innovation in
Japan. Administrative costs of the Foundation to underwritten by
board members so that 100% of donations received can go directly
into research.
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