The vesicular stomatitis virus matrix protein inhibits NF-κB activation in mouse L929 cells.

A previous study found that NF-κB activation is delayed in L929 cells infected with wild-type (wt) strains of VSV, while activation occurred earlier in cells infected with mutant strain T1026R1 (R1) that encodes a mutation in the cytotoxic matrix (M) protein. The integrity of the other R1 proteins is unknown; therefore our goal was to identify the viral component responsible for preventing NF-κB activation in L929 cells. We found that the M protein inhibits viral-mediated activation of NF-κB in the context of viral infection and when expressed alone via transfection, and that the M51R mutation in M abrogates this function.