Response to viral infections depends on the entry route of the virus
Thursday, December 4, 2014 - 19:00
in Biology & Nature
Insect muscle cells are marked in red, cell nuclei (DNA) in blue and virus in green. Insects can transmit viral diseases to humans. Therefore, understanding how insects cope with viral infection, and what immune mechanisms are triggered, can be important to stop diseases transmission. In a study published in this week's issue of the scientific journal PLOS Pathogens*, researchers from the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia (IGC; Portugal) now show that the entry route of the virus changes how the insect host responds to it. Using the fruit flies as a model of study, they discovered an immune mechanism that is specifically effective when flies are infected through feeding.