Mav proteinsDR. FAJIAN HOU, HUI ZHENG, QIU-XING JIANG, AND ZHIJIAN J. CHEN, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS.
F. Hou et al., “MAVS forms functional prion-like aggregates to activate and propagate antiviral innate immune response,” Cell, 146:448-61, 2011.
In trying to tease apart the signaling pathway that activates an innate immune response, Zhijian “James” Chen and colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center discovered that an intermediary mitochondrial protein called MAVS acts like a prion—activating other MAVSs and aggregating—and in this form potently initiates the next signal in the cascade that leads to innate cytokine production. This finding is the first report of a prion-like protein in mammalian cells.
A cell infected with an RNA virus such as influenza alerts other cells by activating innate immune pathways. A cytoplasmic receptor, RIG-1, detects viral RNA particles and activates the mitochondrial membrane protein ...
