Pathogenesis of severe influenza virus infection

Severe respiratory virus infections including H5N1 influenza, H7N9 influenza and MERS-coronavirus, have recently been emerged, and show high mortality in humans due to the development of the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). To date, it remains largely unknown how host specific virus replication signaling and host immune response signaling, both of which are triggered by virus-host interactions, can be integrated and induce pathogenicity in the host in vivo. Recently we have showed a crosstalk between lipid metabolic pathway and RNA export machinery, which play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of severe influenza virus infection.