New player in innate immunity? Class of biomolecules triggered in response to respiratory virus infection
Sunday, November 7, 2010 - 00:24
in Health & Medicine
For the first time, scientists have discovered that long, non-protein coding RNAs produced in a mammal's cells during a respiratory virus attack may influence the outcome of infection. Researchers used new techniques to read a cell's library of RNA transcripts, which reflects gene activity and changing conditions inside and outside the cell. Scientists can now catalog and compare the appearance and activity of long, non-protein coding RNAs during an infection. Distinctive activity rates are linked to fatal infection.