Dr. Feng Hui from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill paid a visit to IHB on November 23, 2017. 

On November 23, 2017, Dr. Feng Hui from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was invited to visit Institute of Hydrobiology (IHB) of Chinese Academy of Sciences and gave a lecture with the title of "Regulation of Immune Response Signaling Pathways and Virus Escape in Species Evolution". 

In the lecture, Dr. Feng Hui introduced how NLRX1 gene promoted the anti-viral response guided by IRF1 gene by restricting the translation of PKR. Because NLRX1 exerted opposing regulatory effects on viral activation of the transcription factors IRF1 and IRF3, NLRX1 is unique among the nucleotide-binding-domain and leucine-rich-repeat (NLR) proteins in its mitochondrial localization.  

In order to explain the contradiction of this function of NLRX1 gene, Dr. Feng conducted in-depth studies on its mechanism. The study found that NLRX1 suppressed MAVS-mediated activation of IRF3, it conversely facilitated virus-induced increases in IRF1 expression and thereby enhanced control of viral infection. NLRX1 had a minimal effect on the transcription of IRF1 mediated by the transcription factor NF-kB. It regulated the abundance of IRF1 post-transcriptionally by preventing translational shutdown mediated by the double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-activated kinase PKR and thereby allowed virus-induced increases in the abundance of IRF1 protein. 

The results of the study are published in NATURE IMMUNOLOGY entitled "NLRX1 has immediate IRF1-directed antiviral responses by limiting dsRNA-activated translational inhibition mediated by PKR".