The Nature Sub-Journal of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences publishes a new endogenous immune mechanism against influenza virus

Influenza virus is one of the main pathogens that threaten human health.

On July 20, 2021, Guo Fei and Wang Jianwei’s research team published a paper titled MARCH8 inhibits influenza A virus infection by targeting viral M2 protein for ubiquitination-dependent degradation in lysosomes on Nature communications, further explaining MARCH8 as a host restriction factor Inhibit the replication of influenza A virus and its molecular mechanism

The author first used the lentivirus packaging system to analyze the effect of MARCH8 on the function of influenza virus envelope protein and found that MARCH8 can significantly reduce the expression level of viral M2 protein in cells

By comparing wild-type M2 and K>R mutant M2 by MARCH8 ubiquitination modification and degradation, it is found that the K78 site of the virus M2 protein is the main target of MARCH8

This work was awarded by the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Medical and Health Technology Innovation Project (2018-I2M-3-004, 2020-I2M-2-014), National Science and Technology Major Project (2018ZX10301408-003 and 2018ZX10731101-001-018), National Natural Science Fund (82072288) and other projects support