Identification of higher-order-epigenetic modification machineries and development of potential novel therapeutics in severe virus infection
Description: We examined the response of host chromatin structures upon viral infection with influenza virus and SARS-CoV2. We found that the host chromatin structure dynamically changes upon influenza virus infection. Suv4-20h2, a trimethyltransferase of H4K20 that binds to cohesin was involved in the maintenance of heterochromatin structure in the uninfected condition. Upon infection, cohesin was dissociated from Suv4-20h2 and loaded to the boundary of a specific genomic region, forming a chromatin loop, activating the gene expression in the region responsible for virus infection. Furthermore, using specimens from patients with COVID-19, we performed genome-wide host chromatin structure analysis and obtained the findings suggesting a link to the severity of the disease.
Amount: ¥196,200,000
Funding type: research
Funder scheme: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S)
Start date: 2017-05-31
End date: 2022-03-31
Investigator: Yumiko Imai
Institution: National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition
Funded outputs count: 20
Funder award ID: 17H06179
OpenAlex ID: G3283686848