Andreas Pichlmair is a for Viral Immunopathology at TUM's Institute for Virology. Image: Astrid Eckert / TUM
Andreas Pichlmair is a for Viral Immunopathology at TUM's Institute for Virology. Image: Astrid Eckert / TUM The cytosolic sensor NLRP1 identifies viruses as non-self and triggers inflammatory responses - The ability to differentiate between self and potentially harmful non-self is vital for the integrity and survival of organisms. In most organisms, the so-called innate immune system is responsible for the recognition of such intruders. A team of researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (LMU) and the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry (MPIB) has studied how skin cells identify viruses as non self - and trigger inflammatory responses: In this process the cytosolic sensor NLRP1 plays an important role. Among the proteins which recognize intruders is a class known as inflammasome sensors. Once activated, these sensors form inflammasome complexes, which then trigger a range of inflammatory responses that can in some cases lead to the death of the infected cell. A group of researchers at TUM, LMU and MPIB has now demonstrated that one such sensor found in skin cells binds directly to a specific molecular structure that arises during the replication of certain RNA viruses.
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