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Scientists have just unraveled a great mystery, explaining how our blood cells build their first line of defense against viruses
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They hope the discovery will one day help them better control this response, promoting or calming it when appropriate
The scientists behind the discovery include Andrew Bowie, Professor of Innate Immunology at Trinity College Dublin, who works at the Trinity Institute for Biomedical Sciences, and Drs Lili Gu and David Casserly (previously Trinity College as a postdoctoral and doctoral researcher)
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Their findings, just published in the leading journal Nature Communications, provide a target for new treatments that can improve antiviral responses in some patients and reduce others when the immune response is out of control.
Patients with autoimmune problems
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Interferon and MNDA - the main pieces of the puzzle
"Interferon" is a key protein that tells our immune system when a virus, bacteria or cancer cell has entered our body
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Type I interferons are produced when the innate immune system senses the presence of a virus
Scientists don't yet fully understand how certain links in this chain of events are controlled -- making it difficult to stimulate or suppress the immune response with therapeutics -- but the new study sheds light on the process.
New insights
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Scientists have discovered that another protein, myeloid nuclear differentiation antigen (MNDA), is required for the production of type I interferons by human blood cells against the virus
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Their work showed that MNDA regulates a transcription factor, IRF7, that essentially drives the production of type I interferons
Professor Andrew Bowie said:
"We've always been interested in better understanding how type I interferons are produced from blood cells, because they need them to fight viruses, and because too many type I interferons -- for example, when the production process goes out of control -- - Can lead to nasty autoimmune diseases like interferon disease
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"There is a family of proteins called PYHIN proteins that we have been studying for some time because they are involved in regulating innate immunity
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To our surprise, a PYHIN protein called MNDA turned out to be the puzzle of how type I interferon production persists.
"It could be really beneficial if we can understand how to manipulate the activity of MNDA - on the one hand to promote interferon responses during viral infections, such as in COVID-19 infection, and on the other hand to suppress interferon production to treat autoimmunity disorder
.
"
Scientists are currently studying how MNDA contributes to the innate immune response to COVID-19
