METHOD OF IDENTIFYING THERAPEUTIC COMPOUNDS WHICH CAN BE USED FOR THE TREATMENT AND/OR PREVENTION OF INFECTIONS AND DISEASES CAUSED BY HUMAN HERPESVIRUSES

摘要

The invention relates to a vertical mother-child transmission route of human herpesviruses, which enables the development of an animal model that can be used to identify potentially-useful compounds for the treatment and/or prevention of infections and diseases caused by human herpesviruses. The method of identifying such compounds consists in experimentally infecting a female of a non-human animal with human herpesviruses, before or after the administration of the compound to be tested, crossing same with a male of the same species and analysing the presence of human herpesviruses in the offspring and/or determining the effect of said compound on the offspring or the mother. Alternatively, the compounds to be tested can be administered to the human-herpesvirus-carrying descendants, instead of the mother, and the effect on such animals analysed.