VITN Blog Post #3: Researchers Explain how Viral Protein Promotes Deadly Infection by Nipah and Hendra Viruses

The journal Nature Communications recently published their findings of the viral protein and cell receptors that allow Nipah and Hendra viruses to infiltrate the nucleus of cells and replicate at faster rates.
The article states that the Nipah and Hendra viruses are zoonoses with sources in Old World fruit bats and are usually transmitted from ill pigs and horses, respectively. They emerge as mass illnesses in animals first, but when they jump to humans who are in contact with the sick animals they can have very high rates of fatality, because there currently is no vaccine or cure against these diseases in humans.

Researchers at the University of Texas identified a protein called the W protein as the viral marker that binds to the cell receptor proteins, in this case, importin ɑ3 and importin ɑ4, on the host cell. Then they claim that these receptor proteins facilitate the virus’s entry into the cell and the cell nucleus. Once in the nucleus, Nipah and Hendra viruses can deactivate the cell’s defense mechanisms and replicate rapidly. To confirm this hypothesis, the researchers generated a Nipah virus that did not have the W protein. In animal cells, the virus was greatly weakened and had difficulty replicating and spreading, demonstrating that the W protein is crucial to Nipah and Hendra’s life cycles.

The findings of this study have important implications for our understandings of zoonotic diseases like Nipah and Hendra. Learning about the pathways that these viruses take to get into cells and nuclei as well as the mechanisms they use to do so can help us find ways to disable these mechanisms and potentially find preventive and curative measures against Nipah and Hendra.

Check out the full article here: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180912081250.htm

-Jennifer Shah