Lecture review

Lecture: Regulation of the autophagy of the zinc finger protein ZNFX1 on Mycobacterium tuberculosis infected macrophages

Introduction to the speaker

Mali , Deputy Secretary and President of the Party Committee of Southern Medical University, Part-time Vice Chairman of the Guangdong Women's Federation, Second-level Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, Deputy Director of the Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control of South China Ministry of Education, Deputy Director of the Guangdong Key Laboratory of Immunomodulation and Immunotherapy, Executive Director of the Chinese Immuno Society, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the Guangdong Immuno Society, and Winner of the National May 1st Labor Medal, National March 8th Red Flag Bearer, Expert of Special Government Subsidy of the State Council, Selection of the National Hundred Thousands of Talent Project, and Experts of the National Young and Middle-aged Experts with Outstanding Contributions , Ministry of Education's New Century Outstanding Talent, Ministry of Education's Ho Yingdong Education Foundation Higher Education Award, Guangdong Province Ding Ying Science and Technology Award, Guangdong Special Branch Plan "Hundred and Ten Million Project Leading Talents", Guangdong Higher Education Institutions "Pearl River Scholars" Special Branch, Guangdong Higher Education Institutions' "Pearl River Scholars", Guangdong's Nanyue Outstanding Teacher, Guangdong's National Training Purchase for the "Thousand and Ten Ten Projects" National Training Purchase, Guangdong's Education System's First-class Outstanding Communist Party Member, Guangdong's "Most Beautiful Science and Technology Worker", was elected as representatives of the 12th and 13th Party Congress of Guangdong Province.

Engaged in tuberculosis immune research. Held 52 scientific research projects such as major national science and technology projects, national key research and development plans, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. ； The first person won 2 first prizes for science and technology progress in Guangdong Province and 1 first prize for education and teaching achievements in Guangdong Province ； Participated in the editing of 5 monographs on immunology ； 181 academic papers have been published in journals such as Cell Res, Cell Mol Immunol, Mol Ther, EMBO J, Sci Adv, JCI Insight, Sci Signal, etc. ； 19 invention patents were granted and 7 were transferred ； rhG-CSF, which participated in the research and development, obtained a new drug certificate and transferred the company to industrialize it for RMB 12 million, becoming the first biotechnology drug to be researched, transferred from another place in Guangdong Province and successfully promoted the listing of the company for undertaking.

Main content

Professor Ma Li communicated around the immune regulation mechanism of the interaction between Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and the host. Tuberculosis is the number one killer of chronic infectious diseases alone. RNA-binding protein (RBP) participates in various life processes such as autophagy by regulating RNA function, but its role in tuberculosis infection immunity has not yet been elucidated. The study found that ZNFX1, a member of the conserved zinc finger protein family, was upregulated in Mtb-infected macrophages (Mφ), bound and stabilized Prkaa2 mRNA through its zinc finger region, thereby maintaining autophagic flux and inhibiting Mtb proliferation. ； Knocking out Znfx1 impaired the Mφ immune response, Mtb load increased, and infected mice developed lung damage and chronic spleen inflammation. This discovery expands the understanding of RBP regulating immunity from tuberculosis infection and also provides new candidate targets for the detection of tuberculosis susceptibility.