Lowering cholesterol could help the body's immune system fight viral infections. Scientists at the University of Edinburgh have shown using a mouse model of viral infection that there is a direct link between the workings of the immune system and cholesterol levels. On viral infection, immune cells release the protein interferon, which sends signals to infected cells, causing cholesterol levels to be lowered. Read more in next week's issue of the online, open access journal PLoS Biology.
Cholesterol produced by our cells is needed for viruses and certain bacteria to grow. Limiting our body's production of cholesterol would therefore curb the opportunity for viruses to thrive. Professor Peter Ghazal, of the University's Division of Pathway Medicine, said: "What we have discovered is that a key immune hormone stimulated upon infection can lower cholesterol levels and thereby deprive viral infections of the sustenance they need to grow. Drugs currently exist to lower cholesterol levels, but the next step would be to see if such drugs would also work to help bolster our immune systems."
Currently, antiviral drugs are used to fight viral infections by targeting key viral machinery that enables it to multiply. The researchers hope to find new ways to manipulate the body's immune system to target cholesterol metabolism. This could involve mimicking immune signals sent to lower the production of cholesterol. Such treatment would help overcome the problems associated with drug resistance, as it would seek to enhance the way the body responds to an infection, instead of focussing on attacking the bug itself.
Funding:
This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (WT066784/Z/02/Z) and by the BBSRC/EPSRC and reagent support by the RNAi Global Initiative to PG. MB was supported by a studentship from the British Heart Foundation reference FS/05/022 and University of Edinburgh Alumni Fund. SRM was supported by a BBSRC studentship and Principal's Fellowship. PL is supported by BBSRC studentship. The Centre for Systems Biology at Edinburgh is a Centre for Integrative Systems Biology (CISB) supported by the BBSRC and EPSRC, reference BB/D019621/1. BS and MM are supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF SFB F28 and Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research GEN-AU III Austromouse. MRW is supported by the Singapore National Research Foundation under CRP Award No. 2007-04, the Biomedical Research Counncil of Singapore (R-183-000-211-305) and the National Medicial Research Council (R-183-000-224-213. AA is supported by funding from the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (SAF2008-00382). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests statement: The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Citation:
"Host Defense against Viral Infection Involves Interferon Mediated Down-Regulation
of Sterol Biosynthesis."
Blanc M, Hsieh WY, Robertson KA, Watterson S, Shui G, et al. (2011)
PLoS Biol 9(3): e1000598. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000598