Identifying Poxvirus Receptors

痘病毒是一大类DNA病毒，能够感染并引起人类疾病。它的成员包括天花的病原体天花和猴痘，后者会导致一种类似天花的致命疾病。除了这些公共卫生问题之外，痘病毒正在被开发并用作疫苗平台和溶瘤剂。典型的痘病毒，牛痘，能够结合并进入每一种被测试的细胞类型。目前，一种明确的细胞受体尚未被确定为痘病毒，这代表了我们对其生命周期知识的一个主要空白。该项目的长期目标是确定哪些细胞受体能够与痘病毒病毒粒子表面发现的约30种病毒蛋白中的哪一种相互作用，从而实现假分型和细胞靶向。我们的研究也将有助于理解牛痘病毒和该组其他成员所表现出的巨大倾向性。目前的目标是开发一种系统来筛选与牛痘病毒相互作用的细胞蛋白。然后，这些结果将扩展到该家族的其他成员（嗜电瘤病毒和黏液瘤病毒），以确定它们是否使用相同的受体，还是已经进化到使用不同的受体。我们的具体目标是；1)利用酵母表面展示技术筛选细胞内成熟型牛痘病毒可结合的细胞蛋白cDNA文库。2)优先考虑并验证牛痘病毒的命中。确定是否有漏电症和黏液瘤可以结合筛选中确定的假定受体。获得的结果将确定痘病毒使用的细胞受体，并为这些病毒广泛趋向性的分子机制提供更深入的了解，同时为具有广泛趋向性的病毒建立新的受体筛选模式。

Poxviruses are a large family of DNA viruses capable of infecting and causing disease in humans. Its members include variola, the causative agent of smallpox, and monkeypox, which causes a smallpox-like disease that can be lethal. In addition to these public health issues, poxviruses are being developed and used as vaccine platforms and oncolytic agents. The prototypical poxvirus, vaccinia, is able to bind and enter, every cell type tested. Currently, an unambiguous cellular receptor has not been identified for poxviruses and represents a major gap in our knowledge of their lifecycle. The long-term goal of this project is to determine which cellular receptor(s) are capable of interacting with which of the ~30 viral proteins found on the surface of poxvirus virions so that pseudotyping and cell targeting can be achieved. Our studies will also help in understanding the vast tropism exhibited by vaccinia virus and other members of this group. The immediate goal is to develop a system to screen for cellular proteins that interact with vaccinia virus. These results will then be expanded to other members of this family (ectromelia virus and myxoma virus) to determine if they utilize the same receptors or if they have evolved to use different receptors. Our specific aims are; 1) Screen a cDNA library using yeast surface display for cellular proteins that the intracellular mature form of vaccinia virus can bind. 2) Prioritize and validate hits for vaccinia virus. Determine if ectromelia, and myxoma can bind putative receptors identified in the screen. The results obtained will identify cellular receptor(s) used by poxviruses and provide greater insight into the molecular mechanism of the broad tropism of these viruses, along with establishing a new receptor screening modality for viruses that have a broad tropism.