Deadly MERS virus could hold the key to its own cure
A piece of the deadly MERS virus might provide its own cure.
The virus causing Middle East respiratory syndrome emerged in 2012. It does not spread readily between people, but there are fears it could cause a pandemic if it ever starts. It has killed 76 of the 178 people known to have caught it so far, and there is no specific treatment.
Shibo Jiang at Fudan University in Shanghai and his colleagues found that the virus forces its way into cells using a rod-like structure made of two “fusion” proteins on the virus surface that bind tightly to each other during infection.
Using X-rays to dissect this structure, they found the binding segments of these two proteins. They made one of the protein’s binding segments in the lab, and saw that it bound tightly to the other protein, blocking the binding site and preventing the rod from assembling. This protected cells in culture from becoming infected by the virus.
Jiang’s ambition is to use this protein to treat MERS, much as a similar fragment of the HIV virus is now used as the anti-HIV drug enfuvirtide. This drug can cause severe side effects because it is a foreign protein injected into the blood, which can trigger allergy and irritation.
Prevention as well as cure
Jiang hopes this would be less severe with MERS, as the virus causes a short-term disease rather than a long-term infection, so treatment would take just weeks, rather than years.
He is also working on a MERS vaccine with a team at the New York Blood Center, in New York City. The vaccine is based on a MERS surface protein that is the first to bind to host cells. “We ideally could use both treatments and vaccines,” says Peter Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, who is working on a similar vaccine for the SARS virus, which is in the same family as MERS.
Jiang and his team are developing the vaccine so that it can be given in nose drops. He says this induces widespread immune responses in the blood and locally in the lining of the nose – exactly where MERS first strikes. Giving the vaccine in nose drops would also avoid irritation around an injection site, which is common with injections of enfuvirtide.
The problem is that few companies are keen to invest in MERS treatments because no one knows if MERS will evolve into a mass killer, says Jiang. With commercial investors wary, the US government awarded $400,000 to the vaccine project in January.
The virus causing Middle East respiratory syndrome emerged in 2012. It does not spread readily between people, but there are fears it could cause a pandemic if it ever starts. It has killed 76 of the 178 people known to have caught it so far, and there is no specific treatment.
Shibo Jiang at Fudan University in Shanghai and his colleagues found that the virus forces its way into cells using a rod-like structure made of two “fusion” proteins on the virus surface that bind tightly to each other during infection.
Using X-rays to dissect this structure, they found the binding segments of these two proteins. They made one of the protein’s binding segments in the lab, and saw that it bound tightly to the other protein, blocking the binding site and preventing the rod from assembling. This protected cells in culture from becoming infected by the virus.
Jiang’s ambition is to use this protein to treat MERS, much as a similar fragment of the HIV virus is now used as the anti-HIV drug enfuvirtide. This drug can cause severe side effects because it is a foreign protein injected into the blood, which can trigger allergy and irritation.
Prevention as well as cure
Jiang hopes this would be less severe with MERS, as the virus causes a short-term disease rather than a long-term infection, so treatment would take just weeks, rather than years.
He is also working on a MERS vaccine with a team at the New York Blood Center, in New York City. The vaccine is based on a MERS surface protein that is the first to bind to host cells. “We ideally could use both treatments and vaccines,” says Peter Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, who is working on a similar vaccine for the SARS virus, which is in the same family as MERS.
Jiang and his team are developing the vaccine so that it can be given in nose drops. He says this induces widespread immune responses in the blood and locally in the lining of the nose – exactly where MERS first strikes. Giving the vaccine in nose drops would also avoid irritation around an injection site, which is common with injections of enfuvirtide.
The problem is that few companies are keen to invest in MERS treatments because no one knows if MERS will evolve into a mass killer, says Jiang. With commercial investors wary, the US government awarded $400,000 to the vaccine project in January.
You can return to the main Market News page, or press the Back button on your browser.
