2015 Research reward: RACK1 checks the translation of viruses by the IRES mediator

The work published in 2014 in the journal Cell by the Antiviral reaction team of Jean-Luc Imler of the CNRS unit “Immune responses and development in insects” at the IBMC have just been awarded the du 2015 Research Award. This work is the result of a collaboration between several research teams from the IBMC and a team from the Institute for Research on Viral and Hepatic Diseases at the University of Strasbourg. By studying Drosophila viruses, the authors found the involvement of a particular ribosome protein, responsible for translating the genome into proteins, in the propagation of these viruses. This protein, Rack1, differentiates the cell’s normal translation from that of these viruses, which use it as an anchor on the ribosome to propagate and hijack the host cell’s machinery. The discovery of this mechanism brings new avenues of treatment for different viruses (insect virus, hepatitis C, rhinovirus, etc.).