On May 7, 2014, scientists from Dr. Chunfu Zheng’s group published an article entitled “Herpes simplex virus type 1 protein kinase US3 hyperphosphorylates p65/RelA and dampens NF-κB activation” in Journal of Virology.
NF-κB plays important roles in innate immune responses, by regulating the expression of a large number of target genes involving in the immune and inflammatory response, apoptosis, cell proliferation, differentiation and survival. This study demonstrated that HSV-1 protein kinase US3 significantly inhibited NF-κB activation and decreased the expression of inflammatory chemokine Interleukin-8 (IL-8). US3 hyperphosphorylated p65 at serine 75 to inhibit NF-κB activation. The kinase activity of US3 was indispensable for its hyperphosphorylation of p65 and abrogation of the nuclear translocation of p65. The present study elaborated a novel mechanism of HSV-1 US3 to evade the host innate immunity.
Dr.Kezhen Wang and Ms. Liwen Ni are the co-first authors. And Prof. Chunfu Zheng is the corresponding author. This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81371795 and 81171584), the Major State Basic Research Development Program of China (973 Program) (2011CB504800 and 2010CB530100), the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Teamin Soochow University (PCSIRT, IRT1075) and Jiangsu Provincial Innovative Research Team.