A protein that undesirably shields a skin poxvirus from the immune system may become the key ingredient in a new topical treatment for inflammatory diseases, say medical researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In a study appearing this month in the Journal of Virology, the scientists revealed both the function of the protein (MC160) and how it works on a molecular level to inhibit inflammatory responses. MC160 is so named because it was the 160th gene of the molluscum contagiosum virus (MCV) sequence. “This is a really important protein for a couple of reasons,” said Joanna L. Shisler, a professor of microbiology in the U. of I. College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign who studies poxviruses. “MC160 first piqued our curiosity because it has a homologue in humans and in herpes viruses, and each of these homologues regulate NF-kappaB” she said. NF-kB is a cellular transcription factor that activates the expression of genes involved in inflammation. Shisler’s lab was interested in determining whether MC160 also acted on NF-kB. In their study -- funded by the National Institutes of Health -- Shisler and Daniel Brian Nichols, a doctoral student in microbiology, treated human embryonic kidney cells with cytokines known to activate NF-kB. Cytokines are chemicals made by immune cells that boost the immune system by stimulating inflammation to fight infectious pathogens.
