Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

A protean protease: MMP-12 fights viruses as a protease and a transcription factor

A new antiviral capacity for matrix metalloproteinase 12 (MMP-12) adds to our expanding understanding of matrix metalloproteinase biology, from matrix remodeling to host defense, in this issue of Nature Medicine (pages 493–502). Marchant et al. show that following viral infection, macrophages secrete MMP-12, which regulates antiviral immunity both as a transcription factor for IκBα, leading to interferon-α (IFN-α) secretion, and later by degrading extracellular IFN-α, resolving inflammation.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Antiviral function of MMP-12.

Kim Caesar/Nature Publishing Group

References

  1. Marchant, D.J. et al. Nat. Med. 20, 493–502 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Parks, W.C., Wilson, C.L. & Lopez-Boado, Y.S. Nat. Rev. Immunol. 4, 617–629 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Houghton, A.M., Hartzell, W.O., Robbins, C.S., Gomis-Ruth, F.X. & Shapiro, S.D. Nature 460, 637–641 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Grandvaux, N., tenOever, B.R., Servant, M.J. & Hiscott, J. Curr. Opin. Infect. Dis. 15, 259–267 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Eguchi, T. Mol. Cell. Biol. 28, 2391–2413 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Shimizu-Hirota, R. et al. Genes Dev. 26, 395–413 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Papayannopoulos, V., Metzler, K.D., Hakkim, A. & Zychlinsky, A. J. Cell Biol. 191, 677–691 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Hautamaki, R.D., Kobayashi, D.K., Senior, R.M. & Shapiro, S.D. Science 277, 2002–2004 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Hunninghake, G.M. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 361, 2599–2608 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Dufour, A. & Overall, C.M. Trends Pharmacol. Sci. 34, 233–242 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Steven D Shapiro.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Dandachi, N., Shapiro, S. A protean protease: MMP-12 fights viruses as a protease and a transcription factor. Nat Med 20, 470–472 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3561

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3561

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing