This time, research groups such as the University of Tsukuba have searched for a sensor molecule that specifically recognizes influenza virus infection in airway epithelial cells, and identified the MxA protein. When MxA recognizes viral proteins, it promotes the formation of the inflammasome complex and produces inflammatory cytokines that respond to influenza virus infection.As a result, macrophages and neutrophils begin to migrate, and by taking in the infectious agent and decomposing (phagocytosis) it, it is possible to suppress the growth of the virus at an early stage of infection.

　Since the Mx gene is not expressed in normal experimental mice, the researchers analyzed the response to influenza virus infection using mice into which the Mx gene was introduced (Mx mice).As a result, it was clarified that in Mx mice, activation of the inflammasome complex induces an inflammatory response earlier than in normal mice, and that Mx mice can survive infection with a viral load that is lethal in normal mice. became.

　It is known that influenza viruses that infect humans, such as the Spanish flu that prevailed in 1917 and the new influenza virus that prevailed in 2009, have acquired resistance mutations to MxA.The results of this study also suggested that this mutation escaped the inflammatory response caused by MxA and acquired the ability to infect humans.

　It has been clarified that MxA also functions as a sensor for pathogens other than influenza virus, and further development is expected in the future.

Paper information:[Science Immunology] Influenza restriction factor MxA functions as inflammasome sensor in the respiratory epithelium