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Updated: Oct 2, 2025

Dissecting Innate Immune Signaling in Viral Evasion of Cytokine Production
Published on: March 2, 2014
Viral dUTPases: Modulators of Innate Immunity
Maria Eugenia Ariza1,2, Brandon Cox2, Britney Martinez2
1Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
Abstract:
Most free-living organisms encode for a deoxyuridine triphosphate nucleotidohydrolase (dUTPase; EC 3.6.1.23). dUTPases represent a family of metalloenzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of dUTP to dUMP and pyrophosphate, preventing dUTP from being incorporated into DNA by DNA polymerases, maintaining a low dUTP/dTTP pool ratio and providing a necessary precursor for dTTP biosynthesis. Thus, dUTPases are involved in maintaining genomic integrity by preventing the uracilation of DNA. Many DNA-containing viruses, which infect mammals also encode for a dUTPase. This review will summarize studies demonstrating that, in addition to their classical enzymatic activity, some dUTPases possess novel functions that modulate the host innate immune response.
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