Investigation of mechanisms of intracellular trafficking and entry to the central nervous system of West Nile virus and development of therapeutic strategy of West Nile virus encephalitis

西尼罗河病毒（WNV）广泛分布于美国、非洲等国家。西尼罗河病毒脑炎的死亡率仍然很高。本研究项目旨在分析西尼罗河病毒在细胞内的转运机制，寻找与西尼罗河病毒脑炎治疗策略相关的基本发现。我们发现，在进入细胞后，西尼罗河病毒亚病毒颗粒（SVP）的运动可分为两个阶段：早期（慢运动）和晚期（快速运动）。此外，后期快速的病毒颗粒运动与svp -微管关联相关。此外，我们发现西尼罗河病毒从细胞中释放受细胞蛋白Rab的调控。根据这些结果，有可能建立针对细胞蛋白如微管蛋白和Rab的西尼罗河病毒脑炎治疗策略。

West Nile virus (WNV) is widely distributed in United States and African countries and so on. The mortality rate of WNV encephalitis is still high. This research project attempts to analyze the intracellular trafficking mechanisms of WNV and find basic findings which are related to therapeutic strategy against WNV encephalitis.We found that following cellular entry, WNV subviral particle (SVP) movements could be divided into two phases: early (slow movement) and late (fast movement) phase. Moreover, fast viral particle movement at the late phase correlated with SVP-microtubule association. In addition, we found that the release of WNV from cells is regulated by cellular protein, Rab. According to these results, there are some possibilities to establish the therapeutic strategies against WNV encephalitis in which we can target cellular proteins, such as tubulin and Rab.