By Merin C. MacDonald | Date Published: June 18, 2024
Protective Role for ADAM9 Protein Identified in Virus-Induced Myocarditis; Findings Provide Opportunities for Development of Therapeutics
Viral myocarditis is an inflammatory disease of the heart that causes significant morbidity and mortality. A Disintegrin and Metalloproteinase domain 9 (ADAM9), a multifunctional protein important in viral pathogenesis, is associated with a range of inflammatory diseases, however, its role in the innate immune response to viral infection is not known. In a recent study published in Nature Communications, a multidisciplinary team from UMass Chan Medical School demonstrated, using a mouse model of viral myocarditis, that animals lacking ADAM9 failed to generate an antiviral response against encephalomyocarditis (EMCV) infection and were more susceptible to virus-induced death.
Investigators discovered that ADAM9 plays a significant role in the antiviral response, specifically in melanoma differentiation-associated protein 5 (MDA5)-mediated type I interferon production. Their findings show that ADAM9 protects against virus-induced cardiac damage and provide opportunities for the development of therapeutics for viral myocarditis treatment.
The project was spearheaded by Department of Medicine faculty members Lindsey Bazzone, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine and Evelyn Kurt-Jones, PhD, professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology in collaboration with Chinmay Trivedi, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and Timothy Cashman, MD, PhD, research fellow, both in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, and the late Robert Finberg, MD.
The authors celebrate the paper’s publication and dedicate it in memory of Dr. Robert Finberg, an internationally renowned physician-scientist who served as chair of the Department of Medicine at UMass Chan Medical School/UMass Memorial Health for 21 years. Long-time colleague and collaborator, Dr. Evelyn Kurt-Jones, described this study as one of Dr. Finberg’s “passion projects.” She further commented, “Bob dedicated his career to studying the immunopathology of viral infections. He would have been thrilled with the outcomes of this paper and the implications for potential treatments.”