Protein Myristoylation Plays a Role in the Nuclear Entry of the Parvovirus Minute Virus of Mice

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Rodent parvoviruses (PVs), including minute virus of mice (MVM), have the ability to infect and kill cancer cells and thereby possess great potential in anti-cancer therapy. In fact, some of these viruses are currently being investigated in both preclinical studies and clinical trials to treat a wide variety of cancers. However, the detailed mechanism of how PVs enter the cell nucleus remains unknown. In this study, we for the first time demonstrated a chemical modification called "myristoylation" of a MVM protein plays an essential role in the nuclear entry of the virus. We also showed, in addition to protein myristoylation, a chymotrypsin-like activity, which may come from cellular proteasomes, is required for MVM to get myristoylated and enter the nucleus. These findings deepen our understanding on how MVM and other related PVs infect host cells and provide new insights for the development of PV-based anti-cancer therapies.