Human metapneumovirus (hMPV) is a leading cause of lower respiratory infection in young children, the elderly and immunocompromised patients. Repeated hMPV infections occur throughout life. However, immune evasion mechanisms of hMPV infection are largely unknown. Recently, our group has demonstrated that hMPV M2-2 protein, an important virulence factor, contributes to immune evasion in airway e...

Human metapneumovirus (hMPV) is a leading cause of respiratory infections in pediatric populations globally, with no prophylactic or therapeutic measures. Recently, a recombinant hMPV lacking the M2-2 protein (rhMPV-ΔM2-2) demonstrated reduced replication in the respiratory tract of animal models, making it a promising live vaccine candidate. However, the exact nature of the interaction between...

High level expression of the M2 ion channel protein of influenza virus inhibits the rate of intracellular transport of the influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) and that of other integral membrane glycoproteins. HA coexpressed with M2 is properly folded, is not associated with GRP78-BiP, and trimerizes with the same kinetics as when HA is expressed alone. Analysis of the rate of transport of HA fr...

Classically (M1) and alternatively activated (M2) macrophages exhibit distinct phenotypes and functions. It has been difficult to dissect macrophage phenotypes in vivo, where a spectrum of macrophage phenotypes exists, and also in vitro, where low or non-selective M2 marker protein expression is observed. To provide a foundation for the complexity of in vivo macrophage phenotypes, we performed ...

BACKGROUND The macrophage, one of the several key immune cell types, is believed to be involved in tumorigenesis. However, the mechanism of macrophages promoting tumor progression is largely unknown. METHODS The differentially secreted proteins of M1 and M2 macrophages were analyzed by mass spectrometry. We performed GST pull-down assay for the identification of cell-membrane receptors that i...

A common strategy shared by all known gammaherpesviruses is their ability to establish a latent infection in lymphocytes--predominantly in B cells. In immunocompromised patients, such as transplant recipients or AIDS patients, gammaherpesvirus infections can lead to the development of lymphoproliferative disease and lymphoid malignancies. The human gamma-herpesviruses, EBV and KSHV, encode prot...

Influenza A virus (IAV) matrix protein 2 (M2) plays multiple roles in the early and late phases of viral infection. Once synthesized, M2 is translocated to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), travels to the Golgi apparatus, and is sorted at the trans-Golgi network (TGN) for transport to the apical plasma membrane, where it functions in virus budding. We hypothesized that M2 trafficking along with i...

this study was carried out to determine the protein and carbohydrate molecular structure of sorghum cultivars using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ftir) with multivariate molecular spectroscopy analyses. sorghum cultivars included: 1- kimia, 2- sepideh, 3- m2 and 4- m8. protein and carbohydrate molecular functional groups studied included: peak area and height amide i, amide ii, α-hel...

The M2 protein of influenza A virus is a small integral membrane protein of 97 residues that is expressed on the surface of virus-infected cells. M2 has an unusual structure as it lacks a cleavable signal sequence yet contains an ectoplasmic amino-terminal domain of 23 residues, a 19 residue hydrophobic transmembrane spanning segment, and a cytoplasmic carboxyl-terminal domain of 55 residues. O...

The influenza A M2 protein forms a proton channel for virus infection and also mediates virus assembly and budding. The minimum protein length that encodes both functions contains the transmembrane (TM) domain (roughly residues 22-46) for the amantadine-sensitive proton-channel activity and an amphipathic cytoplasmic helix (roughly residues 45-62) for curvature induction and virus budding. Howe...