Molecular understanding of influenza virus pathogenesis

Overview

Influenza virus remains one of the most circulated viruses and flu remains one of the most common infectious diseases in humans, globally.

This burden of influenza virus on global public health may even get worse with the co-circulation and co-infection of pandemic SARS-CoV-2.

The identification of factors which govern influenza virus multiplication and determine flu severity in humans is critical to develop effective and tailored antiviral strategies. We have discovered that acetylation, an epigenetic protein modification, plays a critical role in influenza virus infection and may determine the severity of flu in humans.

Current research is focused on elucidating the role of acetylation machinery in influenza virus infection. We use human lung epithelial cells as the infection model of type A influenza virus. We manipulate the expression of genes which control acetylation by tools like RNA Interference and CRISPR/Cas9 and then analyse the effect on influenza virus replication and pathogenesis and host innate immune response by RNA Sequencing, mass spectrometry, plaque assay, qRT-PCR, and western blotting.