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Updated: Sep 3, 2025

Lipid Droplet Isolation for Quantitative Mass Spectrometry Analysis
Published on: April 17, 2017
Interplay between Lipid Metabolism, Lipid Droplets, and DNA Virus Infections
Mónica A Farías1, Benjamín Diethelm-Varela1, Areli J Navarro1
1Millennium Institute on Immunology and Immunotherapy, Departamento de Genética Molecular y Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago 8330025, Chile.
Abstract:
Lipid droplets (LDs) are cellular organelles rich in neutral lipids such as triglycerides and cholesterol esters that are coated by a phospholipid monolayer and associated proteins. LDs are known to play important roles in the storage and availability of lipids in the cell and to serve as a source of energy reserve for the cell. However, these structures have also been related to oxidative stress, reticular stress responses, and reduced antigen presentation to T cells. Importantly, LDs are also known to modulate viral infection by participating in virus replication and assembly. Here, we review and discuss the interplay between neutral lipid metabolism and LDs in the replication cycle of different DNA viruses, identifying potentially new molecular targets for the treatment of viral infections.
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