Investigating properties of wildtype and mutant Barmah Forest virus replicases
Abstract
Barmah Forest virus (BFV) is an alphavirus that is mostly spread in Australia and it causes
disease in humans upon infection that may manifest as arthritis, myalgia, fever and rash. For
this reason, BFV is a cause for concern in puclic health and often a subject in alphavirus
related research. In the current work, we observed that BFV replicase activates the type I
IFN response in the absence of a viral template, and that mutations in viral replicase proteins
may boost IFN production. Furthermore, we looked into the effect that these mutations may
possess on the replication and transcription of the BFV replicase using the trans-complementation
system. These experiments aid in understanding how alphaviruses influence host
cells and vice versa, which could provide useful information in the research for antiviral
agents.
Collections
The following license files are associated with this item: