National University of Singapore – Thai Tran

The Novo Nordisk Foundation has awarded a grant of DKK 13,420,606 (approx. 2.5M SGD) to support target validation of a potential host factor for influenza replication

Influenza viruses hi-jacks and use the host nuclear machinery to replicate and spread its infection yet this pathway is not therapeutically targeted by current approved antiviral therapy.

The team behind the project has pioneered the hypothesis that the human factor CD151 is involved in a crucial aspect of influenza virus replication, i.e., the nuclear export of viral proteins, and the funded project will further explore CD151 as a potential novel therapeutic target to inhibit influenza replication and disease.

The target validation will be pursued in a three-pronged approach: 1) By defining the specific molecular interactions between CD151 and the influenza nucleoprotein (NP) by various methods; 2) By analyzing the relative functional contribution of the CD151-NP specific interactions to viral load across different influenza strains in various models; and 3) importantly by assessing safety of inhibiting CD151 function. Successful outcomes of this explorative study will pave the way for rational design and further development of a new class of host-directed influenza therapeutics. The 3-year project is led by associate professor Thai Tran, who has assembled a team of experts in virology, immunology, structural biology, animal models, and drug discovery, all from National University of Singapore.

Picture: Top-Bottom, Left-Right: Thai Tran, Vincent Chow, De Yun Wang, Justin Chu, John Tam, Haiyan Liu, Kun Qu, KaiSen Tan