#cell-cell communication

[netbiopub]

New avenues for systematically inferring cell-cell communication: through single-cell transcriptomics data. Shao et al, Protein Cell. 2020 Dec; 11(12): 866–880.

[biochemistries]

Viruses can contain virulence determinants that are not encoded in their genomes. For example, vaccinia virus incorporates host complement regulatory proteins into its envelope, thereby becoming resistant to inactivation by host complement proteins. Another type of epigenetic mechanism is exemplified by herpesviruses such as human cytomegaloviruses (HCMB) and HSV that can package host and viral mRNA into the virion. Carryover of these mRNA can result in synthesis of viral proteins before the traditional transcription program of the virus is initiated. It is not necessarily true that viral virulence determinants exert their effects in host cells actually infected by the virus. One example of this is paracrine regulation of tissue pathology by virus-encoded cytokines. Another example is the movement of viral proteins from an infected to an uninfected cell. For example, the HSV protein VP22 can efficiently move from an infected cell to the nucleus of uninfected cells, carry other proteins between cells, and transport mRNA from one cell to the next. This is a fascinating example of how a viral virulence determinant can act on uninfected cells to contribute to viral pathogenesis.

Fields Virology (5e, vol. i, p. 333)

Found this a slightly odd sense of the word “epigenetic”, but hey. Also, one more example of mRNA being shared amongst cells…   ( icymi )