UTSW Researchers Discover Immune Pathway with Broad-Spectrum Efficacy

At UT Southwestern Medical Center, a team spearheaded by Dr. Don Gammon and Emily Rex unveiled a significant breakthrough: the identification of an antiviral immune pathway with broad-spectrum efficacy against various viruses. Their research, featured in Nature Microbiology, holds tremendous potential for reshaping approaches to viral infection prevention and autoimmune disease intervention.

The genesis of this discovery traces back nearly a decade, to Dr. Gammon's tenure as a postdoctoral fellow under the mentorship of Nobel Laureate Craig Mello at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Investigating viral behavior in moth cells, the team stumbled upon a remarkable phenomenon: the vaccinia virus, typically infecting vertebrates, facilitated the replication of other viruses in insect cells. Through meticulous genetic analyses, they pinpointed the A51R protein, a component of the mammalian poxvirus, as the key orchestrator of this phenomenon.