Luis Alberto Martinez-Sobrido, Ph.D.

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Dr. Luis Martinez-Sobrido is Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at University of Rochester, New York. For the last 10 years his research interest has been focused on the molecular biology of negative and positive strand RNA viruses as well as the evasion of the innate immune response by viruses. His current projects focus, mainly, on the anti-interferon response by Arenaviruses and Influenza viruses.

Type I Interferon (IFN) plays an important key role in the host antiviral innate immune response. For that reason, viruses have developed a plethora of strategies to disrupt the IFN mediated antiviral defense of the host, and viral gene products responsible for these disruptions are often major virulence determinants.

Arenaviruses merit significant interest as clinically important human pathogens, including several causative agents of hemorrhagic fever disease. Using Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis Virus (LCMV), the prototype member in the family, we found that the viral nucleoprotein (NP) inhibits the IFN response in infected cells by interfering with the activation of the Interferon Regulatory Factor 3 (IRF3). This was the first nucleoprotein described to block production of Type I interferon during viral infection as well as the first member of the Arenaviridae family described to counteract the Type I IFN response. Dr. Martinez-Sobrido's work focuses, now, on characterize the anti-IFN properties of LCMV-NP as well as the implications of this function during viral replication.

Influenza viruses are globally important human pathogens that affect up to 500 million people annually. During the effective replication cycle of the virus in its hosts, Influenza non-structural protein 1 (NS1) has been demonstrated to perform several important functions. One of the best characterized functions is the ability of Influenza NS1 to antagonize Type I IFN production, preventing an antiviral state in the host. Dr. Martinez-Sobrido's previous work has shown that Influenza NS1 exerts its inhibitory properties at least in part by its binding to double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), resulting in the sequestration of the retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I), a cellular sensor of RNA virus infection, therefore inhibiting IRF3 activation. In addition to blocking the activation of IRF3, Influenza NS1 has also been postulated to affect post-transcriptional processing of cellular mRNAs. He has compared the abilities of NS1 gene products from different human Influenza strains to counteract the antiviral host response and found that Influenza NS1 proteins use different strategies to overcome the IFN-induced antiviral state.

Current Appointments

• Assistant Professor - Department of Microbiology and Immunology (SMD)

Lab Description

Dr. Luis Martinez-Sobrido research interest focuses on the molecular biology and in the evasion of the innate immune response by negative strand RNA viruses, mainly Arenaviruses and Influenza viruses.

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Lab Website

http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/web/index.cfm?event=doctor.profile.show&person_id=1003672&display=for_researchers

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Recent Journal Articles
Showing the 5 most recent journal articles. (33 available)
Lai C; Struckhoff JJ; Schneider J; Martinez-Sobrido L; Wolff T; García-Sastre A; Zhang DE; Lenschow DJ. "Mice lacking the ISG15 E1 enzyme UbE1L demonstrate increased susceptibility to both mouse-adapted and non-mouse-adapted influenza B virus infection." Journal of virology. 2009; 83(2):1147-51. Epub 2008 Nov 12.
Zamarin D; Martínez-Sobrido L; Kelly K; Mansour M; Sheng G; Vigil A; García-Sastre A; Palese P; Fong Y. "Enhancement of Oncolytic Properties of Recombinant Newcastle Disease Virus Through Antagonism of Cellular Innate Immune Responses." Molecular therapy : the journal of the American Society of Gene Therapy. 2009; Epub 2009 Feb 10.
Nguyen DN; Kim P; Martínez-Sobrido L; Beitzel B; García-Sastre A; Langer R; Anderson DG. "A novel high-throughput cell-based method for integrated quantification of type I interferons and in vitro screening of immunostimulatory RNA drug delivery." Biotechnology and bioengineering. 2009; Epub 2009 Mar 06.
Dauber B; Martínez-Sobrido L; Schneider J; Hai R; Waibler Z; Kalinke U; García-Sastre A; Wolff T. "Influenza B virus ribonucleoprotein is a potent activator of the antiviral kinase PKR." PLoS pathogens. 2009; 5(6):e1000473. Epub 2009 Jun 12.
Kuri T; Zhang X; Habjan M; Martínez-Sobrido L; García-Sastre A; Yuan Z; Weber F. "Interferon priming enables cells to partially overturn the SARS-Coronavirus-induced block in innate immune activation." The Journal of general virology. 2009; Epub 2009 Jul 22.