The Role of Zinc-Finger Antiviral Proteins in Immunity against Viruses

The Zinc finger antiviral proteins (ZAP) are expressed by the cells in response to different viral attacks. The ZAP marks the viral mRNA for degradation with the help of different cellular proteins for exosome. Beside the degradation of viral mRNA, the ZAP protein also inihibits translation of proteins from this mRNA. Although it is not a universal antiviral protein, but a number of important human pathogenic viruses are controlled by the ZAP protein. In this review article we have discussed the current progress made in understanding the structure, function, mechanism and therapeutic roles of the ZAP protein.