Coronavirus M Protein Hijacks Toll‐Interacting Protein (TOLLIP) to Suppress NF‐κB Signaling and Promote Immune Evasion
Yabin Zhang, Lu Kang, Yu Zhong, Songjun Shao, Senren Xue, Changliang Liu, Xiaoqi Zheng, Jing‐Wen Lin, Yu Chen, Fengming Luo, Huajing Wan · 2026
Read Coronavirus M Protein Hijacks Toll‐Interacting Protein (TOLLIP) to Suppress NF‐κB Signaling and Promote Immune Evasion by Yabin Zhang, Lu Kang, Yu Zhong, Songjun Shao, Senren Xue, Changliang Liu, Xiaoqi Zheng, Jing‐Wen Lin, Yu Chen, Fengming Luo, Huajing Wan (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13273844.txt.
Description
Zhang and colleagues show how a coronavirus protein disarms part of the immune system. Their 2026 journal article studies the membrane, or M, protein of SARS-CoV-2. The focus is the NF-kB pathway, a key alarm signal for infection.
Lab tests showed the M protein strongly blocked NF-kB activation. It also cut production of inflammatory cytokine signals. In mouse lung cells expressing M, inflammation from a bacterial trigger was weaker. The team found that M binds a host protein called TOLLIP. That binding holds TOLLIP with its partner IRAK1. IRAK1 then cannot switch on, and the alarm pathway stalls. The binding site is a linker region shared across coronaviruses. The authors propose it as a broad antiviral drug target.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Yabin Zhang, Lu Kang, Yu Zhong, Songjun Shao, Senren Xue, Changliang Liu, Xiaoqi Zheng, Jing‐Wen Lin, Yu Chen, Fengming Luo, Huajing Wan |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 60639 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |