Interplay between viruses and their host cells

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project Area: Molecular basis of host cell competency in virus infection
• Project/Area Number: 24115005
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (Research in a proposed research area)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Review Section: Biological Sciences
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: Yanagi Yusuke 九州大学, 医学研究院, 教授 (40182365)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 荒瀬 尚 大阪大学, 微生物病研究所, 教授 (10261900)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): HASHIGUCHI Takao 九州大学, 医学研究院, 准教授 (50632098) ; SUENAGA Tadahiro 大阪大学, 微生物病研究所, 准教授 (20396675)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-06-28 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: ウイルス / 免疫学 / 感染症 / 微生物 / 蛋白質 / 麻疹ウイルス / ヘルペスウイルス / 膜融合

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To better understand molecular basis of virus entry, we studied two human paramyxoviruses, mumps virus (MuV) and measles virus (MeV). Our results revealed that the trisaccharide containing an alpha 2,3-linked sialic acid acts as a receptor for MuV. MeV occasionally infects neuronal cells in the brain. We showed that enhanced fusion activity, mainly due to substitutions in the fusion protein, is essential for MeV to infect and spread in neurons which do not express known MeV receptors. Besides the entry step, we identified host proteins SHCBP1 and cofilin required for efficient MeV growth within host cells. We also studied herpesvirus infections. Our data showed that a sialic acid on varicella-zoster virus glycoprotein B is required for cell-cell fusion. We developed an efficient assay system to study entry and membrane fusion mediated by herpesvirus 6 glycoproteins gB, gH, gL, and gQ. We also developed a new method to engineer large viral DNA genomes using the CRISPR-Cas9 system.

Free Research Field

ウイルス学