Viral infections affect millions of people worldwide and pose a major threat to human health. Therefore efforts to understand the host defences against viruses are timely and useful. There are specific receptors on the host cells such as Pattern Recognition Receptors (PRR), which are capable of sensing infectious viruses and initiate reactions collectively known as innate immune responses by detecting motifs or molecular signatures. These responses include activation of antiviral cytokines and initiation of the adaptive immune response, thus inhibiting virus replication. The main two families of PRR involved in virus recognition are the Toll like receptors and the RIG-1 like receptors (RLRs; also known as RIG-1 like proteins or RNA helicases). This study was aimed to clarify the innate immune responses and recognition pathways of Picornaviridae by the host. Picornaviridae are single-stranded RNA viruses that can infect many tissues and organs and produce a variety of symptoms and illnesses to the host. The results from this study have shown that TLRs and RLRs and more specifically TLR7, TLR8 and MDA5 are involved in the detection of Picornaviridae such as Coxsackievirus A9 (CAV-9) and Human Rhinovirus 6 (HRV6) leading to the activation of antiviral cytokines by the host cells.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:516152 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Vakakis, Emmanouil |
| Publisher | University of Sussex |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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