What happens when measles virus meets a human cell? The viral machinery unfolds in just the right way to reveal key pieces that let it fuse itself into the host cell membrane. Once the fusion process is complete, the host cell is a goner. It belongs to the virus now.
Scientists in the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) Center for Vaccine Innovation are working to develop new measles vaccines and therapeutics that stop this fusion process. The researchers recently harnessed an imaging technique called cryo-electron microscopy to show-;in unprecedented detail-;how a powerful antibody can neutralize the virus before it completes the fusion process. "What's exciting about this study is that we've captured snapshots of the fusion process in action," explains LJI Professor, President and CEO Erica Ollmann Saphire, Ph.
D., who co-led the Science study with Matteo Porotto, Ph.D.
, Professor of Viral Molecular Pathogenesis (in Pediatrics) at Columbia University. "The series of images is like a flip book where we see snapshots along the way of the fusion protein unfolding, but then we see the antibody locking it together before it can complete the last stage in the fusion process. We think other antibodies against other viruses will do the same thing but have not been imaged like this before.
" Indeed this work may prove important beyond measles. Measles virus is just one member of the larger paramyxovirus family, which also includes the deadly Nipah virus. Nipah virus is known for b.
