AI Summary
the nucleocapsid structure, providing detailed insights into how the virus replicates and evades the host immune response. This breakthrough in imaging technology could lead to the development of a universal antiviral that targets the nucleocapsid structure, offering hope for combatting multiple filoviruses, including Ebola and Marburg.
At this moment, the world has few tools to combat deadly filoviruses, such as Ebola and Marburg viruses. The only approved vaccine and antibody treatments protect against just one filovirus species.
Scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) are working to guide the development of new antivirals by leading some clever enemy reconnaissance. These researchers use high-resolution imaging techniques to examine a virus’s molecular structure-;and uncover where a virus is vulnerable to new therapies.
In a new Cell study, scientists in LJI’s Center for Vaccine Innovation share the first detailed, complete images of a viral structure called the Ebola virus nucleocapsid. This breakthrough may accelerate the development of antivirals that target this viral structure to combat several filoviruses at once.Â
“A universal antiviral is the dream for stopping any kind of viral disease,” says LJI Staff Scientist Reika Watanabe, Ph.D. who led the Cell study as a first author. “This study brings us a step closer to finding a universal antiviral.”
Inspecting the enemy
Ebola virus relies on its nucleocapsid structure to protect and replicate its own genetic material inside host cells-;and suppress host cellular immunity. Thanks to the nucleocapsid, Ebola can turn infected host cells into virus-making factories.
For the study, Watanabe achieved a first in science-;by harnessing an imaging technique called cryo-electron tomography, she glimpsed Ebola’s nucleocapsid structure at work inside actual infected cells.
At first glance, the Ebola virus nucleocapsid looks like a coiled telephone cord. Watanabe revealed the stages of coiling and compression of