Scientists at the Medical College Baylor in the United States revealed the secret of the unique structure and function of the protein VP3, which helps to avoid rotavirus immune response. The discovery will help to develop drugs to treat dangerous rotavirus infections that lead to around 200 thousand deaths annually. Article researchers published in the journal Science.
it Turned out that VP3 consists of four molecular modules that combine five enzymatic functions required for replication of rotavirus. One of the strategies that viruses use to penetrate into a cell is to kupirovanii viral messenger RNA (mRNA) so that it resembled caerbannog mRNA of the cell.
Kopirovanie is one of the stages of maturation of RNA in which the end of the molecule is attached structure consisting of modified nucleotides and is called the cap. This mechanism is very important for the subsequent synthesis of proteins, but viruses also kupiruyut its own mRNA to capture the cellular machine for protein synthesis. In the case of rotavirus is known that it uses a VP3 protein, but the structure of this molecule was not known for 30 years.
Modules VP3 self-assemble into a stable molecule, capable of simultaneously capturing at least two mRNA, making the process effective. Knowledge of the structure will allow you to develop antiviral drugs for the prevention or treatment of rotavirus infection.
