MicrobiologyBytes

Dengue fever and Dengue hemorrhagic fever have emerged as some of the most important mosquito-borne virus diseases in the tropics. No effective vaccine or antiviral drug therapy is currently available against Dengue viruses and the mechanisms of pathogenesis in Dengue infections remain elusive. Recently, virus-induced apoptosis mediated by the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR, or ER stress response) has been hypothesised to represent a crucial pathogenic event in virus infection. In Dengue virus infection, cells elicit an UPR which is observed at the level of translation attenuation (seen by phosphorylation of eIF2alpha) and activation of other specific pathways. Interestingly, specific serotypes of Dengue virus modulate the UPR with different selectivity. Perturbation of the UPR by preventing the dephosphorylation of the translation initiation factor eIF2alpha considerably alters virus infectivity. This report provides evidence that Dengue infection induces and regulates the three branches of the UPR signaling cascades. This is a basis for understanding of Dengue virus regulation and conditions beneficial to virus infection. Furthermore, modulators of UPR such as Salubrinal that inhibit Dengue replication may open up avenues for anti-viral therapy.

Dengue virus serotype infection specifies the activation of the unfolded protein response
Virology Journal 2007 4: 91

Tags: antiviral drug, apoptosis, dengue, fever, hemorrhagic, infections, Microbiology, mosquito, pathogenesis, Science, therapy, Unfolded Protein Response, vaccine, virus disease

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 at 7:28 am and is filed under Biology, Emerging disease, Health, Immunology, Medicine, Microbiology, Science, Virology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.