Bryan Mounce
Loyola University Chicago, IL·Microbiology & Immunology
Viruses cannot replicate alone; they must take over the cell's own resources. Polyamines are small, abundant molecules found in all cells of plants, animals and fungi.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Biochemistry
Biology
- Topics
polyamines
RNA viruses
virology
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2030
What they work on
- Determine how RNA viruses use polyamines, small molecules found in all cells, to bind to and enter cells, comparing Coxsackievirus B3, Rift Valley fever virus and chikungunya virus.
- Measure how polyamines help cells respond to and survive stress, especially stress in protein production and stress caused by virus infection.
- Identify how polyamines connect with other metabolites, particularly lipids, nucleotides and cholesterol, in the cell's metabolic network, and how viruses rely on these linked pathways to replicate.
More about the research
Cells need them for basic tasks such as reading genes and making proteins. RNA viruses need them too. The team previously showed that viruses from several families, including enteroviruses, alphaviruses and bunyaviruses, use polyamines to package their genomes, to run viral enzymes, and to attach to cells. Infected cells fight back by tagging polyamines with acetyl groups and destroying them in peroxisomes, small compartments in the cell. The team also found that polyamines control cellular levels of nucleotides, lipids and cholesterol, which are all resources that viruses use.
Why it matters
RNA viruses pose a constant threat to human health, and options to treat infection are limited. By revealing how diverse viruses, from Coxsackievirus to chikungunya and Rift Valley fever virus, depend on host polyamines and connected metabolic pathways, this work could point to host-pathogen interactions that may be exploited for broad-acting antiviral therapeutics.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Anita McElroy
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine the route by which Rift Valley fever virus spreads from a peripheral site to the central nervous system, using mouse models in which virus is injected into the footpad to mimic a mosquito bite.
Cynthia McMillen
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Microbiology & Immunology·Early-career
Compare mother-to-offspring transmission of four Oropouche virus strains (BeAn19991, BeH759021, LET2083, AM0088) from four genetically distinct lineages, to test whether genomic reassortment underlies changes in tissue targeting and virulence.
Peiqi Yin
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY·Microbiology & Immunology
Map which domains of the chikungunya envelope proteins must be bound to stop cell-to-cell spread, using a panel of monoclonal antibodies that do or do not block the formation of intercellular long extensions.
The school
Loyola University Chicago: 8 labs on PI Pages, $61M a year on research, 156 research doctorates a year.
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