Vaccine for SARS Comes a Step Closer to Reality

Researchers have now come a step closer to understanding how to disable a part of SARS virus that helps it hide from the immune system, which may help them develop a vaccine against the disease

Researchers have now come a step closer to understanding how to disable a part of SARS virus that helps it hide from the immune system, which may help them develop a vaccine against the disease.

Andrew Mesecar, Purdue's Walther Professor of Cancer Structural Biology and professor of biological sciences and chemistry, said this also could serve as a molecular roadmap for performing similar studies on other coronaviruses, like MERS, because this enzyme appears to be common to all viruses within this family.

Hib Vaccine - Types, Dosage Schedule, Contraindications and Side Effects
The Hib vaccine protects children against infections like meningitis and pneumonia that are caused by the Haemophilus influenzae type b bacterium.

Because MERS and SARS are related, insight into one could provide a shortcut to finding a treatment or developing a vaccine for the other.

Mesecar and his team captured the molecular structure of a key SARS enzyme, papain-like protease, and revealed how it strips a host cell of the proteins ubiquitin and ISG15, which are involved in triggering an immune response.

He said with most viruses, when a cell is infected it sends out an alarm triggering an immune response that fights the infection, but successful viruses are able to trick the immune system.

About Shingles
In ‘Shingles’ or ‘Herpes Zoster’ painful skin rashes appear usually on the side of chest wall. It is caused by chicken pox virus called varicella zoster.

Masecar said that by clipping off these two proteins, SARS short circuits the host cell's signaling pathways and prevents it from alerting the immune system to its presence and by removing these proteins, the enzyme serves as a biological cloaking system for the SARS virus that allows it to live and replicate undetected.

The disruption in its natural signaling pathways also causes an infected cell to miscommunicate with the cells around it, which leads to a response that eventually kills those cells, he said.

Tetanus - Causes Symptoms Diagnosis Treatment FAQs
Tetanus (or Lockjaw) is a serious preventable infection that can affect the muscles and nerves and results from contamination of wound. The vaccine against Tetanus can prevent the infection.

The paper has been published online in the journal PLOS Pathogens.

Source-ANI