Retroviruses such as HIV are notorious for their ability to dodge the mammalian immune system, but researchers have pinpointed a mechanism by which retrovirus-resistant mice detect and respond to retroviral infection.
The body's innate immune system detects pathogens using specific receptors, which then trigger the antibody and cellular responses. Tatyana Golovkina at the University of Chicago, Illinois, and her team infected retrovirus-resistant mice with mouse retroviruses. Virus that had been irradiated with ultraviolet light — and had thus been rendered incapable of replicating — was just as able to elicit an antibody response as nonirradiated virus, suggesting that viral entry is enough to trigger the response.
The authors then homed in on the receptor that senses the viral RNA: TLR7. They suggest that virus-sensing occurs in the cell's endosomes — membrane-bound compartments in which TLR7 resides.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Virus detected upon entry. Nature 475, 143 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/475143b
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/475143b
