Unprecedented Insight Into Fighting Viral Infections

[Guest guest]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110929161331.htm

Unprecedented Insight Into Fighting Viral Infections

ScienceDaily (Sep. 30, 2011) — Researchers at Rutgers and UMDNJ- Wood

Medical School have determined the structure of a protein that is the

first line of defense in fighting viral infections including influenza,

hepatitis C, West Nile, rabies, and measles.

Principal investigators of the study, " Structural basis of RNA recognition and

activation by innate immune receptor RIG-I, " chosen for advanced online

publication in Nature, say the research is key in the development of broad-based

drug therapies to combat viral infections.

" Understanding innate immunity to viral infections is crucial to developing

drugs that can fight viruses or control inflammation, " said ph

Marcotrigiano, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers

who along with Smita Patel, professor of biochemistry at Wood

Medical School, are principal investigators on the newly released study. " Having

this foundation is extremely important. "

RIG-I is a receptor protein that recognizes differences in molecular patterns in

order to differentiate viral RNA -- the process during which virus particles

makes new copies of themselves within a host cell and can then infect other

cells -- from cellular RNA. What researchers discovered is that viral RNA, as

opposed to single-stranded cellular RNA, is a double-stranded structure. This

double-stranded difference is the reason the RIG-I protein recognizes it and

initiates a signal to induce anti-immune and anti-inflammatory defenses within

the cell.

Prior to this research, there was little understanding on how RIG-I protein

recognized the viral infections, said Patel. Knowing that it is due to the

double-stranded molecular structure of the viral RNA is critical because, he

said, " a failure of RIG-I to identify viral RNA can lead to alterations of the

cell, including cell death, inflammation, autoimmune diseases, and cancer. "

This is a first step, the scientists say, in helping to develop therapies that

interfere with a broad variety of viral infections -- a major breakthrough for

millions of people who get sick from viruses which cannot be treated effectively

by current medication.

" This work provides unprecedented insights on the molecular mechanism of viral

RNA recognition by RIG-I, " said Barbara Gerratana, who oversees enzyme catalysis

grants at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National

Institutes of Health. " As a result, we have a deeper understanding of how the

human body fights viral infections and a structural basis of the development of

new anti-viral therapeutics. "