The Inhibition of RNA-Polymerase II-Mediated Expression by the Non-Structural Protein NSs of the Oropouche Virus and Establishing an Oropouche Virus Minireplicon System

TL;DRAbstract

The OROV is a RNA virus that has a segmented, single stranded genome of negative polarity. It belongs to the Bunyaviridae family. Infection by the OROV causes an acute very debilitating febrile episode. This RNA virus is responsible for multiple and massive epidemic outbreaks in South America involving hundreds of thousands of infected people. The viruses of this family express a NSs protein as their major virulence factor, which inhibits the expression of IFN-β. IFN-β is a critical antiviral protein, whose expression, if inhibited, allows for the replication of virus particles. The experiments carried out in this thesis aim at characterizing the pathogenic mechanism of the NSs protein of the OROV. There are three transcriptional factors that are necessary for IFN-β gene expression and they are activated after viral recognition: IRF-3, NF-κB and AP-1. The OROV-NSs protein blocks the activation of the IFN-β promoter as well as the activation of the artificial IRF-3-, NF-κB- and AP-1-res

Chat with Paper

AI Agents for this Paper