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【bio-news】埃博拉病毒是如何感染人类的?一个小

Ebola: tiny protein change stops virus infecting cells

21 July 2006
Source: SciDev.Net

Scientists have discovered clues about how the Ebola virus invades human cells, causing the severe fever and internal bleeding that kills 50–90 per cent of infected people.

They say the finding, published online on 12 July by Virus Research, could help researchers develop a vaccine or drug against the virus and its close relative, Marburg virus.

The team, led by Carolyn Wilson, of the US Drug Administration, identified two amino acids — the 'building blocks' of proteins — that the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus needs to enter cells.

When the researchers altered the virus's genetic material, so that different amino acids were produced, laboratory tests showed the virus was no longer able to infect human and monkey cells.

Altering either of the two amino acids, which form part of a protein on the surface of the virus, had the same effect.

"It is a well done study by highly reliable investigators," says James Cunningham, of Harvard Medical School in the United States. Last year he showed that a human enzyme helps Ebola fuse with the cells of people it infects (see Human enzyme helps Ebola virus invade cells).

He says the research could stimulate studies into questions such as why these two amino acids are important.

Javad Aman, of the US-based Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, told SciDev.Net that it is interesting that a single amino acid mutation completely stops the virus in its tracks. "This would suggest that the virus may be, in fact, quite vulnerable."

Aman says that if future studies can determine the exact structure of the Ebola protein, this could help researchers design drugs.

"The study may also have implications for vaccine development if we can target the immune response toward these critical sites," he adds.

Reference: Virus Research doi:10.1016/j.virusres.2006.06.002

The Ebola virus
screen.width-333)this.width=screen.width-333" width=140 height=140 title="Click to view full EbolaVirus1.jpg (140 X 140)" border=0 align=absmiddle> 微小的蛋白质结构改变可以阻止埃博拉病毒感染细胞

日前,科学家发现了埃博拉病毒如何感染人类细胞的线索。该病毒可引起高热和内出血感染者的死亡率为50%~90%。他们说发表在7月12日《病毒研究》网络版的这项发现能够帮助研究者发明一种疫苗或药物来对抗埃博拉病毒和它的相似病毒-马尔堡病毒。Carolyn Wilson领导的美国药物管理局小组确定了两种埃博拉病毒需要它们来进入细胞的氨基酸,即蛋白质的基本结构。当研究人员改变病毒的基因结构时,可产生不同的氨基酸,实验表明该病毒不再能够感染人和猴的细胞。改变构成病毒表面部分蛋白的两种氨基酸中的任何一种,可产生相同的效果。“这是由一组高度可信赖研究人员完成的出色研究。”美国哈佛医学院James Cunningham说。去年他展示了人类酶能够帮助埃博拉病毒融合入它感染的细胞,即人类酶帮助埃博拉病毒侵犯细胞。他说该研究能够激励进行更深入的研究,例如为什么这两种氨基酸是重要的。美国陆军传染病研究所Javad Aman对SciDev.Net说,单一的氨基酸突变能够完全地阻止病毒的传染途径,这是值得注意的,这就暗示这种病毒实际上是很脆弱的。Aman说如果未来的研究能够确定埃博拉病毒精确的蛋白结构,它可能会帮助研究人员设计出治疗药物来。“这项研究还提示如果我们能够调整免疫应答对准关键位置的话,就可以发明疫苗。”他补充说。 [标签:content1][标签:content2]

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