Dr. George Belov receives R01 grant totaling $1.9 million for the "Role of a host protein GBF1 in organizing enterovrius replication complexes"

Enteroviruses are a broad group of small +RNA viruses associated with clinically and
economically important human diseases, ranging from the common cold to poliomyelitis,
encephalitis and myocarditis. Currently, few enteroviruses can be controlled with vaccines, and
no clinically approved anti-enterovirus drugs are available. Many, if not all, enteroviruses rely on
cellular protein GBF1 for their replication. GBF1 is a large multi-domain protein, which serves as
a master coordinator of the early steps of the cellular secretory pathway. It interacts with many
other cellular proteins and is also known to participate in metabolism of lipid droplets and in
maintaining of the Golgi structural organization and function. However, how this protein supports
the viral replication cycle remains unknown, in spite that importance of GBF1 for enterovirus
replication was established almost a decade ago. In this project, Dr. George Belov with the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Maryland at College Park and Dr. Elizabeth Sztul with the Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham aim to understand what properties of GBF1 are required to support enterovirus replication and what specific step in the viral replication cycle is actually dependent on this protein. The universal reliance of diverse enteroviruses (and some other +RNA viruses) on GBF1 provides an opportunity of development of broad spectrum therapeutics targeting GBF1-controlled processes in infected cells. This is $1.9M grant awarded over five years.