Department of Biochemistry, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
EMBO J. 2014 Jul 17;33(14):1506-8. doi: 10.15252/embj.201489071. Epub 2014 Jun 21.
There are wide variations in the susceptibility of humans, animals, and cultured cell lines to infection by prions. In this issue of , Marbiah (2014) identified a gene regulatory network that regulates the susceptibility of cultured cells to prion infection. Surprisingly, a number of these genes impact the structure of the extracellular matrix. These results have important implications for understanding mechanisms of prion infection and also suggest new therapeutic targets.
人类、动物和培养细胞系对朊病毒感染的易感性存在广泛差异。在本期杂志中,Marbiah (2014)确定了一个调节培养细胞对朊病毒感染易感性的基因调控网络。令人惊讶的是,其中一些基因影响细胞外基质的结构。这些结果对于理解朊病毒感染的机制具有重要意义,也为新的治疗靶点提供了线索。