ABOVE: Before killing Salmonella, the detergent-like protein APOL3 (green) must get through the bacteria’s protective outer membrane (red), shown in cross section here.
R. GAUDET ET AL., SCIENCE, 2021
When the mammalian immune system detects a pathogen, a kind of immunological call to arms is precipitated by the release of a cytokine known as interferon-gamma, which induces the transcription of tons of host genes in cells throughout the body, not just in immune cells. But the identities of all those genes and what they do to protect the host aren’t well understood. In a study published today (July 15) in Science, researchers found that one gene stimulated by interferon-gamma, apoplipoprotein L3 (APOL3), produces a protein that can destroy bacteria that sneak into host cells by acting like a detergent—surrounding the lipids integral to the pathogens’ cell membranes and causing them to break apart.
The paper is “important for a new understanding ...
