A functional evolutionary genetic approach to combat viral infection

项目摘要 人类正受到来自动物宿主的病毒的日益严重的威胁。大部分 这些病毒性疾病缺乏针对性的治疗。我们推测这种未满足的医疗需求可能 通过首先了解抗病毒免疫的进化原理， 应答哺乳动物先天免疫的主要组成部分是干扰素应答。 干扰素诱导数百种基因，其中许多编码抑制 病毒感染在哺乳动物中，这些抗病毒效应物正在迅速进化，最有可能是在 病毒和宿主之间不断发生的遗传“军备竞赛”的反应。此外，本发明还 某些哺乳动物目，如灵长类、啮齿类、蝙蝠和食肉动物， 有可能传染给人类的病毒我们假设， 这些病毒性人畜共患病储库编码独特的抗病毒效应物， 对抗人类病毒病原体。该项目的目标是识别、表征和 验证来自不同非模式哺乳动物物种的新型抗病毒蛋白的功效。 最先进的遗传筛查平台将用于在原发性肝癌中发现抗病毒基因。 细胞培养物得自以下哺乳动物目的多个物种：灵长类， 啮齿目，翼手目，食肉目。将对经确认的效应器进行机械表征 一套病毒学、生物化学、分子和细胞生物学方法。的潜在 将在人类病毒感染的鼠模型中测试这些效应物抑制人类病毒的能力。 疾病结果将包括创建第一个全面的哺乳动物抗病毒药物 蛋白质图谱，新的基因编码的抗病毒机制的发现，以及 人类病毒性疾病可以通过来自其他病毒的天然蛋白质来阻止。 物种这一提议的影响将是生物医学新领域的发展。 病毒学、免疫学和进化生物学的交叉研究。长期 前景包括利用这些研究的结果来启发替代方法， 抗病毒药物开发。

Project Summary Humans are under increasing threat from viruses that spill over from animal reservoirs. Most of these viral diseases lack targeted treatments. We speculate that this unmet medical need might be addressable by first understanding the evolutionary principles underlying antiviral immune responses. A major component of innate immunity in mammals is the interferon response. Interferon induces hundreds of genes, many of which encode effector proteins that suppress viral infection. In mammals, these antiviral effectors are rapidly evolving, most likely in response to the genetic "arms race" continually occurring between virus and host. Further, certain mammalian orders, such as primates, rodents, bats, and carnivores, are particularly rich in viruses that have the potential to spill over into humans. We hypothesize that the genomes of these viral zoonotic reservoirs encode unique antiviral effectors that may be harnessed to combat human viral pathogens. The goals of this project are to identify, characterize, and validate the efficacy of novel antiviral proteins from diverse non-model mammalian species. State-of-the-art genetic screening platforms will be used to discover antiviral genes in primary cell cultures obtained from multiples species in the following mammalian orders: Primate, Rodentia, Chiroptera, and Carnivora. Validated effectors will be characterized mechanistically with a suite of virological, biochemical, molecular, and cell biological approaches. The potential for these effectors to suppress human viruses will be tested in murine models of human viral disease. Outcomes will include the creation of the first comprehensive Mammalian Antiviral Protein Atlas, the discovery of new genetically-encoded antiviral mechanisms, and proof-of- concept that human viral disease can be thwarted by naturally occurring proteins from other species. The impact of this proposal will be the development of a new area of biomedical research at the intersection of virology, immunology, and evolutionary biology. Long term prospects include harnessing the results of these studies to inspire alternative approaches to antiviral drug development.