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Journalism of Courage
Should bioterrorists exploit either of two newly emerging viruses as weapons of mass destruction, scientists in New York said on Thursday, they have discovered a powerful protein fragment that may effectively thwart lethal infections. The idea is to develop the infinitesimal fragment into a drug, said Anne Moscona and Matteo Porotto, who are on the trail of the Hendra and Nipah viruses, two deadly pathogens that are relatively new to science. Hendra was first isolated in 1994, Nipah in 1999.
Global public health experts have sounded the alarm about both pathogens, which are endemic in fruit bats but cause no disease in them. Both viruses have jumped the species barrier to cause diseases in domestic animals and humans. Experts at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have added them to the Biodefense Research Agenda8217;s list of viruses that might be exploited into biological weapons.
In the current issue of Virology, Moscona and Porotto documented their work on a tiny peptide, a snippet of a protein, which they serendipitously found during studies of the unrelated parainfluenza virus, which has a devastating impact on children worldwide. Parainfluenza virus possesses this fragment, which8212;surprisingly8212;inhibits infection with Hendra and very likely Nipah as well, the scientists said.
For example, the two scientists learned Hendra and Nipah share a molecule dubbed 8220;G8217;8217;, which during the course of infecting a cell acts as the 8220;glue8217;8217; that binds it to the cell8217;s surface. When this happens, Porotto said, it spurs a cascade of events helping the virus enter the cell.
The hope, he said, is to develop sustained-release anti-virals against these deadly new pathogens.
8212;Delthia Ricks / LAT-WP
