CSIRO's disease prevention and detection team had been distressed by an episode of ABC's Australian Story featuring equine vet Ben Cunneen, who in 2008 became the third person in the world to die of the rare Hendra virus. "We were really taken aback by that story," Dr Bean said. "It was so disappointing that there weren't any therapeutics available to treat people suffering from this infection and so we decided to work towards the development of an antiviral treatment for the Hendra virus." Biosecurity officers take a swab from a horse at the Redlands Veterinary Clinic, east of Brisbane. Credit:Dave Hunt With this in mind, the team, which is based at CSIRO's Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong, started on an experimental project to look at how the virus interacts with human cells.

The human genome was first fully sequenced in 2003, allowing scientists to map out a person's entire genetic code – or genome – and identify mutations that can cause disease. A colleague of Dr Bean's was working on a new system where the function of a gene can be determined by turning the genes in a cell off one by one. The team used this approach to identify which genes were important to the Hendra virus. "When we know what genes are important to the virus we can then start to develop new therapies directed at blocking the virus from using those genes," Dr Bean said. The “C6” gene discovered by CSIRO. When the team switched off the new gene, with the name of Chromosome Six Open Reading Frame Number 106 (C6 for short), they noticed there was an impact on the Hendra virus replication.

"This was a great breakthrough with regards to viral infections; however, what we are now understanding is that it has implications that are far broader," Dr Bean said. What the team discovered was that C6 switches off the production of certain proteins – known as cytokines – which are involved in inflammation, infection and trauma. These cytokines play an important role in controlling the immune system, and the CSIRO researchers found that the C6 geneproduct stopped these cytokines from causing the immune system to spiral out of control. "With inflammation it is a real balancing act – you do need inflammation to deal with some infections but you don't want an overly high inflammatory response," Dr Bean said. "The body has put in place a number of control points for inflammation and C6 appears to be one of those."

Dr Bean said it is likely C6 played a role in controlling inflammation in a number of diseases. "This work presents intriguing implications for antiviral immunity, autoimmune disorders and cancer," the CSIRO team published in a paper in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, which announced the discovery of the gene. Lead author Dr Rebecca Ambrose said 15 years after the human genome was first fully sequenced, there were still thousands of genes that very little was known about. "It's exciting to consider that C6 has existed for more than 500 million years ... but only now are we gaining insights into its importance." CSIRO is seeking suggestions from the public for a new name for C6. (To find out how to nominate a name go to www.csiro.au/namethegene) A shortlist of names will be made available for final approval by a third party.