When a virus enters a cell, the immune system reacts immediately and produces the signal protein interferon.
This protein activates hundreds of highly specialized defense mechanisms in all surrounding cells, which can inhibit various steps of virus multiplication.
Although these so-called interferon-stimulated genes form the backbone of the innate immune system, the mechanisms of action of only a few of them have so far been understood. The interferon-stimulated gene C19orf66 plays an important role in the defense against hepatitis C viruses.
A research team at the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) under the direction of Professor Eike Steinmann from the Department of Molecular and Medical Virology has now investigated how C19orf66 works.
The results show that C19orf66 interferes with the formation of the viral replication machinery.
The researchers published their study on the 12th
April 2020 in the Journal of Hepatology. Hepatitis C patients produce more of the gene than healthy people. To find out whether the C19orf66 gene is activated in samples from hepatitis C patients, we first examined liver tissue samples from infected and healthy people ”Explains PhD student Volker Kinast.
The analysis showed that the production of C19orf66 is increased in hepatitis C patients. ”In the next step we checked whether C19orf66 has an antiviral effect against hepatitis C viruses.
We conducted experiments with cells that contained a lot of C19orf66 and with cells that contained little of it.
We then observed that the hepatitis C virus multiplies much more slowly in cells that contain a lot of C19orf66 than in control cells, ”says Kinast.
Virological and molecular biological analyzes Additional experiments with cells in which the gene C19orf66….
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