Professor Chunfu Zheng’s Lab has made significant headway in alphaherpesviruses
Date：06-12-2011 | 【Print】 【close】
Dr. Chunfu Zheng’s Lab has made significant headway in alphaherpesviruses research and published three articles in Journal of Virology in 2011. One of Professor Chunfu Zheng’s articles titled “Varicella-Zoster Virus Immediate-Early Protein ORF61 Abrogates the IRF3-Mediated Innate Immune Response through Degradation of Activated IRF3” has been selected by the editors of the Journal of Virology for inclusion in "spotlight", a feature in the journal that highlights research articles of significant interest from the current issue. Evasion of innate immune responses is required for varicella-zoster virus (VZV) to infect cells and establish latency. Zhu et al. show that the VZV immediate-early protein ORF61 suppresses production of beta interferon (IFN-β) by interacting with and degrading activated forms of the transcription factor, interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3), in a proteasome-dependent fashion. These data suggest that ORF61 contributes to VZV pathogenesis by blocking the IFN-βpathway. 
