Engineering Tick Proteins to Target Inflammatory Chemokines
Chemokines are the master regulators of leukocyte trafficking in inflammation. However, effectively targeting chemokines in inflammatory disease therapy requires agents that selectively block several chemokines. Ticks express salivary proteins (evasins) that inhibit chemokines, broadly suppressing host inflammation and supporting blood feeding. The structures of “Class A” evasins bound to chemokines, supported by mutational analyses, revealed the basis of their specificity for CC chemokines as well as features that control their selectivity amongst CC chemokines. These structural insights enabled rational engineering of evasins to tailor their chemokine selectivity. These studies provide a basis for development of evasins with applications in anti-inflammatory therapy.
Date: 12 June 2023, 12:30 (Monday, 8th week, Trinity 2023)
Venue: Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Headington OX3 7BN
Venue Details: Seminar rooms A & B
Speaker: Prof Martin Stone (Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, Australia)
Organising department: RDM Cardiovascular Medicine
Organiser: Laura Bourne (CVM, University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: laura.bourne@cardiov.ox.ac.uk
Host: Prof Shoumo Bhattacharya (University of Oxford)
Part of: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Laura Bourne