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VIRAL ENTRY. "Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites: they must enter a cell to reproduce. To gain access to the cell interior, a virus must first bind to one or more specific receptor molecules on the cell surface. Cell receptors for viruses do not exist only to serve viruses: they also have cellular functions." https://lnkd.in/ePqG64s View in LinkedIn

VIRAL STRATEGIES. "Viruses seem to have evolved strategies to efficiently adapt to the scale-free and small-world architecture of the human interactome. By interacting with host hubs, viruses target the “Achilles’ heel” of the host interactome. Because of the multi-functionality of these hubs, viruses manipulate a wide range of functions. In addition, some viral proteins have also evolved the ability to interact with numerous cellular proteins." https://lnkd.in/eMcnYAH View in LinkedIn

VIRUS-HOST INTERACTOME. "From a systems biology perspective, a viral infection can be viewed at the cell level, as a combination of molecular perturbations allowing viral component production and assembly while generating minor or massive cellular dysfunctions. These perturbations are at least in part introduced into the host protein network through interactions of cellular proteins with viral proteins." https://lnkd.in/eMcnYAH View in LinkedIn

7% HOST PROTEIN CHANGE. "Quantitative proteomic analysis of influenza A virus (H1N1) infected A549 cells and primary human bronchial airway epithelial cells have been performed by stable isotope labeling by amino acids in cell culture...about 360 out of almost 4700 characterized cytosolic proteins were differentially regulated upon infection." https://lnkd.in/eRMPu_B View in LinkedIn

TWO-WAY BATTLE. "Virus-specific molecular patterns, such as dsRNA or the RNA 5′-tri-phosphate, are targets of host innate immune systems that have broad antiviral specificity; whereas individual viral proteins may be targeted by a specific host resistance system." https://lnkd.in/eZfCdmN View in LinkedIn

FOREIGN HAND ON THE STEERING WHEEL. "The invasive hijacking of the host cell machinery by the virus is associated with directed influence on gene expression of host cell proteins." https://lnkd.in/eRMPu_B View in LinkedIn

SELECTIVE PRESSURE. "Viruses can affect the fitness of their hosts and thus often impose a selection pressure. Cellular organisms have evolved a variety of defense systems against invading viruses." https://lnkd.in/eZfCdmN View in LinkedIn

"VIRUSES either induce or inhibit various mitochondrial processes in a highly specific manner so that they can replicate and produce progeny. Some viruses encode the Bcl2 homologues to counter the proapoptotic functions of the cellular and mitochondrial proteins. Others modulate the permeability transition pore and either prevent or induce the release of the apoptotic proteins from the mitochondria." https://lnkd.in/eFuy4KS View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT IN NATURE for the next three weekends focuses on how viruses, and then parasites, can hijack their host's molecular machinery in order to complete their lifestyles. Over the course of millions of years, a molecular arms race has been gamed by parasites and their hosts, and will continue. The biochemical and genetic strategies employed point to exquisite fine-tuning of evolutionary capabilities. View in LinkedIn

SNAPSHOT. "Here we present the atomic details of the step-by-step arms race between tomato mosaic virus replication protein and the host inhibitor protein Tm-1, in which host recognition of a viral molecule, viral adaptive evasion of the recognition, host counteradaptation, and viral counter- counteradaptation are depicted by determination of the complex structures of Tm-1 variants and the viral protein and by biochemical analyses and molecular dynamics simulations of the interactions between these proteins." https://lnkd.in/eZfCdmN View in LinkedIn