Summary

Viruses are obligatory parasites that largely depend on the cellular machinery for their replication, so there are few specific viral targets for antiviral therapies. Besides, escape mutants resistant to antiviral agents generally emerge rapidly for RNA viruses, due to their high mutation rate. Innate immunity is the first line of defence against viral infections, preventing their propagation and preparing the adaptive immune response to clear the infectious agent. Recent developments in this field now hold the promise of fighting viral infections by enhancing the innate immune response. Detailed knowledge of how this first line of defence is established, and how viruses escape these antiviral defences, is critical to understanding how to prevent viral infection. Our laboratory has a long experience in studying negative strand virus (NSV) RNA synthesis and replication, including Sendai (paramyxo)virus (SeV), VSV (rhabdovirus), Tacaribe (arena)virus, and LaCrosse and Hantaan (bunya)viruses. We have also intensively studied the interactions between SeV and its host, and in particular the IFN antagonists that the virus expresses to counteract the innate immune response. We now propose to study what exactly are the pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) of paramyxovirus and arenavirus infections to which the innate immune systems responds.