FTSJ3 Antibody #71873

FTSJ3 is an RNA 2’-O-methyltransferase originally discovered through its role in processing of 34S pre-rRNA (1). In addition to contributing to RNA stabilization, 2’-O-methylation at the 5’-cap enables the innate immune system to distinguish self from non-self mRNA (2). While some viruses encode their own 2’-O-methyltransferase enabling them to avoid detection by the innate immune system, HIV does not (3,4). However, it was recently demonstrated that FTSJ3 is recruited to HIV RNA resulting in 2’-O-methylation of the HIV RNA genome and evasion of immune detection (5). Cells deficient in FTSJ3 produced virus with less 2’-O-methylation and upregulated type I interferon expression leading to reduced HIV expression and replication (5).