Grant: Project Grant

RuvBL1 is a cellular protein that plays an important role in a multitude of cellular processes that are essential for life. We have recently identified RuvBL1 as a protein that interacts with the adenovirus E1A protein. Adenoviruses are a family of small DNA viruses that cause a variety of diseases in humans, and, importantly, were shown to cause cancer in animals. Adenovirus E1A is the first gene expressed after infection and its function is to alter the cellular state to facilitate virus replication. Due to its cell reprogramming properties, adenovirus is an ideal tool with which to study cellular processes. We will exploit this property of adenovirus to investigate how it modulates the activities of RuvBL1 during infection. The proposed work aims at identifying the role of RuvBL1 in innate immune defence, frontline cellular defences against viral invaders. Understanding the role of RuvBL1 in immunity on a fundamental level, which the proposed experiments enable us to do, is crucial to understanding disease states associated with RuvBL1 and its role in host immune evasion. Importantly, our proposed research will identify how highly pathogenic adenovirus strains suppress the immune system during infection. This has broad implications for understanding of how new and emerging pathogens may evade host defences.