Given our preliminary data demonstrating that HCMV gB envelope glycoprotein could activate the PDGFRα, and induce downstream activation of the oncogenic PI3-K / AKT pathway, we sought to determine whether HCMV gB transcript and protein are endogenously expressed in human glioblastoma specimens and investigate the functional consequences of gB overexpression or stimulation using recombinant gB protein in glioma cells expressing PDGFRα. Here, AKT1 is linked to glioblastoma.