Section of a mouse hippocampusFLICKR, NICHDZika virus infection leads to epigenetic modifications of both the virus and human RNA molecules, leading to changes in viral replication and the human immune response, according to a study of cell cultures published last week (October 20) in Cell Host & Microbe.
“I’m excited about this study because it teaches us something new about the human immune system,” study coauthor Tariq Rana of the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine said in a press release. “But these findings are also something researchers should keep in mind as they are designing new Zika virus vaccines and treatments that target the viral genome—some approaches won’t work unless they take methylation into account.”
Specifically, Rana and colleagues found that methylation of viral RNA serves as “a beacon for human enzymes that come along and destabilize it,” according to the press release, and that the immune response of the host induced methylation of human RNAs. Removing the enzymes needed to add the methyl groups, the team found that more ...
