Mechanism of Interaction between Influenza Hemagglutinin and Host Cell Phosphoinositides

流感病毒在美国和世界范围内导致严重的疾病和死亡。疫苗提供了 有一定的保护作用，但必须根据病毒的季节性变异而不断调整。一些人 流感毒株对有限数量的现有抗病毒药物中的一种或多种具有抗药性 毒品。迫切需要新的策略来攻击病毒的不变特征。这个 病毒表面发现的蛋白质血凝素使病毒能够与宿主细胞结合 然后进入。进入依赖于病毒膜内高密度的血凝素簇， 但团簇的形成机制尚不清楚。这个项目将从根本上解决 血凝素如何形成簇的问题，即使在没有其他病毒成分的情况下， 通过劫持蜂窝组件。我们最近发现，血凝素与一种 特定的宿主细胞脂(PIP2)，能够控制宿主细胞的细胞骨架和几个 以前被认为与感染有关的信号通路。这个项目将 用超分子标记技术研究血凝素与PIP2的相互作用机制 分辨率显微镜和其他荧光方法，针对血凝素的部分 它们是不变的，因此不太可能随着时间的推移而变异。结果将有助于确定新的 抗病毒药物的靶点，并阐明流感如何能够修改宿主细胞 细胞骨架和质膜为其自身的生命周期。

Influenza virus causes significant illness and mortality in the U.S. and worldwide. Vaccines offer some protection, but must be continuously tailored to seasonal mutations of the virus. Some strains of influenza are resistant to one or more of the limited number of available anti-viral drugs. New strategies which attack invariant features of the virus are desperately needed. The protein hemagglutinin, found on the surface of the virus, allows the virus to bind to host cells and enter. Entry depends on high density clusters of hemagglutinin within the viral membrane, but the mechanism of cluster formation is unknown. This project will address the fundamental question of how hemagglutinin forms clusters, even in the absence of other viral components, by hijacking cellular components. We recently discovered that hemagglutinin interacts with a particular host cell lipid (PIP2) that is able to control the host cell cytoskeleton and several signaling pathways that have been implicated previously in infection. This project will investigate the mechanism of interaction between hemagglutinin and PIP2 using super- resolution microscopy and other fluorescence methods, targeting the portions of hemagglutinin that are invariant and therefore less likely to mutate over time. Results will help identify new targets for anti-viral drugs and illuminate how influenza is able to modify the host cell cytoskeleton and plasma membrane for its own life cycle.