Wuhan University School of Life Science Professor Mingzhou Chen has co-authored an article published in Cell Host & Microbe that details interactions between viruses and host cells. Doctor Binbin Ding is the first author, and Prof. Chen is a corresponding author.

For the first time, the study discovered that the human parainfluenza virus type 3 (HPIV3) can induce incomplete autophagy by blocking SNAP29-mediated fusion of autophagosomes with lysosomes, resulting in increased virion production. Doctor Mathias Faure, a researcher at the International Center for Infection Biology Research, made comments in the journal about the article. 

Human parainfluenza viruses are one of the main pathogens that cause infants and other Immunocompromised populations lower respiratory infections, including acute bronchiolitis, pneumonia and asthma. Due to the deteriorating air quality in China, the problem of respiratory diseases has grown. This research addresses the growing problem and the lack of effective vaccine or antiviral drugs for preventing or curing human parainfluenza viruses by providing a  molecular basis for developing cures.

The research group’s model of HPIV3 infection contributes to research on the interactions between nonsegmented negative-strand (NNS) RNA viruses and host cells and provides a new direction for studying virus membrane fusion.

In addition, the group has made a series of important steps in the replication of NNS RNA viruses, and the results have been published in the Journal of Virology, another authoritative journal in the field of Virology.

(Rewritten by Xin Liu, edited by Sijia Hu & Yoni)