innate immunity

Natural antibody protects against viral infection

Antibodies produced by infection with a virus, or after immunization with viral vaccines, are effective at preventing viral disease. However humans and higher primates contain “natural antibodies” which are present in serum before viral infection. Natural antibodies can activate the classical complement pathway leading to lysis of enveloped virus particles long before the adaptive immune …

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How influenza virus inhibits early antiviral responses

The fact that viruses routinely and frequently cause disease shows that our defense mechanisms are imperfect. This occurs in large part because nearly every viral genome encodes one or more countermeasures to modulate host defenses. Influenza virus is no exception. One of the viral proteins, called NS1, is particularly adept at impairing the synthesis of …

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Sensor face

While preparing a figure for a review article on innate sensing of RNA, I realized that the image was taking on facial features. I thought the readers of virology blog might be amused by the image that I created. Click on the thumbnail at left for a larger view. Now you know that I have …

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