African swine fever virus (ASFV) causes a lethal disease of pigs with high economic impact in affected countries in Africa, Europe, and Asia. The virus encodes proteins that inhibit host antiviral defenses, including the type I interferon response. Host cells also activate cell death through a process called apoptosis to limit virus replication. We showed that the ASFV A179L protein, a BCL-2 family apoptosis inhibitor, is important in reducing apoptosis in infected cells since deletion of this gene increased cell death and reduced virus replication in cells infected with the A179L gene-deleted virus. Pigs immunized with the BeninΔA179L virus showed no clinical signs and a weak immune response but were not protected from infection with the deadly parental virus. The results show an important role for the A179L protein in virus replication in macrophages and virulence in pigs and suggest manipulation of apoptosis as a possible route to control infection.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/jvi.01106-23 | DOI Listing |
Elife
December 2024
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
Because of high mutation rates, viruses constantly adapt to new environments. When propagated in cell lines, certain viruses acquire positively charged amino acids on their surface proteins, enabling them to utilize negatively charged heparan sulfate (HS) as an attachment receptor. In this study, we used enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) as model and demonstrated that unlike the parental MP4 variant, the cell-adapted strong HS-binder MP4-97R/167G does not require acidification for uncoating and releases its genome in the neutral or weakly acidic environment of early endosomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Biomol Struct Dyn
December 2024
Department of Biological Sciences, Sunandan Divatia School of Science, SVKM's Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) Deemed-to-be University, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Rubella virus (RUBV) is responsible for causing rashes, lymphadenopathy, and fever which are the hallmarks of an acute viral illness called Rubella. For RUBV replication, the non-structural polyprotein p200 must be cleaved by the rubella papain-like protease (RubPro) into the multifunctional proteins p150 and p90. Hence, RubPro is an attractive target for anti-viral drug discovery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFmSphere
December 2024
Australian Infectious Disease Research Centre, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Vigilin is a large and evolutionary conserved RNA-binding protein (RBP), which can interact with RNA through its KH domain. Vigilin is, therefore, a multifunctional protein reported to be associated with RNA transport and metabolism, sterol metabolism, chromosome segregation, carcinogenesis, and heterochromatin-mediated gene silencing. The receptor for activated C kinase 1 (RACK1) is another highly conserved protein involved in many cellular pathways.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Virol
December 2024
State Key Laboratory for Animal Disease Control and Prevention, CAAS Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China.
Unlabelled: African swine fever (ASF) is a highly contagious and often lethal disease caused by African swine fever virus (ASFV) in pigs. Protein palmitoylation is a prevalent posttranslational lipid modification that can modulate viral replication. In this study, we investigated the palmitoylation of ASFV proteins.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Virol
December 2024
Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Immunology, College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Several APOBEC3 enzymes restrict HIV-1 by deaminating cytosine to form uracil in single-stranded proviral (-)DNA. However, HIV-1 Vif counteracts their activity by inducing their proteasomal degradation. This counteraction by Vif is incomplete, as evidenced by footprints of APOBEC3-mediated mutations within integrated proviral genomes of people living with HIV-1.
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