Going viral: Could peroxisomes be key to stopping West Nile and Dengue viruses?

UAlberta research identifies how flaviviruses target an essential organelle to subvert the body’s early antiviral defenses. A new discovery from the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry could open the door to one day treat or prevent diseases caused by West Nile virus and Dengue virus infections. The research, published and featured in the Spot Light section of the December edition of the Journal of Virology, examines a previously unknown connection between flaviviruses–a classification of viruses that include West Nile virus, Dengue virus and tick-borne encephalitis virus–and organelles (a specialized subunit within a cell) known as peroxisomes that help coordinate the body’s immune responses. Postdoctoral fellow Jaehwan You and PhD student Shangmei Hou, the lead authors on the study, found that flaviviruses induce degradation of a protein called Pex19, which is essential for the building of new peroxisomes, setting off a chain reaction that could leave the body more vulnerable to...