Microbiólogos encuentran molécula defensiva que detecta virus respiratorios

Los ratones que carecen de este sensor muestran una supervivencia más corta
SAN ANTONIO, Texas, Estados Unidos. Una molécula celular que no solo puede detectar dos virus respiratorios comunes si no que también puede hacer que algunas células levanten una respuesta defensiva, han sido identificadas por microbiólogos de la University of Texas Health Science Center en San Antonio
El hallazgo, publicado en línea el domingo23 por la revista Nature Immunology, puede conducir a nuevas terapias para el virus sincitial respiratorio humano (RSV) y el de la influenza A (llamado comúnmente de la influenza), siendo ambos severas amenazas para aquellos con un sistema inmune débil, particularmente los niiños hasta un año, y los ancianos mayores de 65 años.
“Esta molécula puede ser empleada para estimular las defensas inmunes del huésped y la eficacia de la vacuna contra el RSV y la influenza A, especialmente entre individuos en alto riesgo”, dijo Santanu Bose, Ph.D., profesor asistente de microbiología e inmunología.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-08/uoth-mfd082109.php

Related to survival
The cellular molecule, called NOD2, recognizes these viruses and can instruct cells to defend against them. Researchers found that mice lacking the sensor survive for only 10 days after infection, compared with up to eight weeks for normal animals.
Identifying this sensor and understanding its key role could result in therapies that activate the NOD2 gene during or prior to infection, leading to enhanced protective immunity. The NOD2 sensor also has the potential to recognize other viruses, such as West Nile virus, yellow fever, Ebola and rabies.
Dr. Bose has multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health and the American Lung Association to continue this line of research. “In the future, studies will gear up to find out if NOD2 is a susceptibility gene for respiratory viruses, since frequent mutation of this gene has been found in humans,” he said.
Possible clinical use
Once the study is designed and clinical partner affiliations are reached, the Bose team hopes to draw blood from severely infected, moderately infected and non-infected patients to test for levels of the sensor, which would allow predictions as to how individuals might respond to respiratory viral infections.
“This is a major breakthrough in understanding respiratory virus behavior and innate immune antiviral factors, and provides the basis for innovative therapies to improve host responses to infectious diseases,” said Joel Baseman, Ph.D., professor and chairman of microbiology and immunology at the Health Science Center.
Dr. Baseman said microbiology and immunology faculty members in the university’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences are doing fundamental and translational research that is the basis for the establishment of an airway disease research and vaccine center. The group includes Dr. Bose’s co-authors on the NOD2 paper, Peter Dube, Ph.D., and Yan Xiang, Ph.D.