TSG101: An Antiviral Target with a Murky Past

Viruses hijack a host protein that normally sorts the trash

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© Russell Kightley Media, http://rkm.com.au/

Ebola (above) is a killer virus that may commandeer cellular protein-sorting pathways through TSG101.

Viruses can't do much without a host. They propagate by usurping cellular machinery, and much of an infection's misery is due to the immune response. But conventional therapies, without much luck, essentially have targeted one-half of the infection equation: the foreign invader. Now, researchers increasingly are setting their sights on the host's role.

Investigators recently attempted to mitigate the host immune response and the associated collateral damage (see sidebar). Some explore a complementary approach: to cut off access to the cellular pathway that a virus commandeers to mass-produce, specifically, the route used to bud from the cell. Doing so, without impairing the host, could provide a powerful new broad-spectrum antiviral agent. "Conventional antivirals are highly specific, and pathogens can mutate to insensitivity," says Stanley Cohen, professor of genetics and medicine at ...

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