Publications by authors named "Virginia-Maria Vlachava"
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
December 2023
Article Synopsis
- Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) employs various immune-evasins to evade host immune responses, allowing it to persistently infect individuals by reducing the activation of natural killer (NK) cells.
- Researchers screened HCMV's 170 protein-coding genes and discovered that the UL4 gene encodes a secreted protein (gpUL4) that inhibits NK cell degranulation and acts as a decoy receptor for TRAIL, preventing it from binding to its receptor.
- GpUL4 not only inhibits NK cell responses to HCMV but also suppresses reactions to other viruses, indicating its potential role as a systemic immunosuppressive agent encoded by the virus.
