Deciphering the role of host protein HuR in RNA virus life cycle and pathogenesis: Hepatitis C Virus and SARS-CoV-2 as exemplars

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PhD; 2023; Microbiology and cell biology

Viruses pose a major threat to human health and the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic proves as the best evidence for that. Historically, RNA viruses have a major potential to cause such pandemics. They utilise RNA binding proteins at several stages of their life cycle. We have worked on one such RBP, ELAVL1 (also known as HuR) to study its role in life cycle and pathogenesis of two kind of RNA viruses, one which causes chronic infection, Hepatitis C Virus and the other that causes lytic infection, SARS-CoV-2. HuR is an RNA-binding protein which binds to AU-rich elements in the RNA and regulates the transport, stability and translation of associated RNAs. The function of HuR is regulated by its cellular localisation, post-translational modifications and binding partners. We have outlined the following objectives to understand the role and regulation of HuR in HCV and SARS-CoV-2 life cycle and pathogenesis.