Researchers have discovered exactly how a neutralizing antibody blocks the highly contagious virus. (La Jolla Institute for Immunology via SWNS) By Stephen Beech via SWNS A major breakthrough in the battle to beat measles has been made by scientists working to develop new vaccines. American researchers have discovered exactly how a neutralizing antibody blocks the highly contagious virus.
They explained that when the 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" and it belongs to the virus. Scientists at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) in California are working to develop new measles vaccines and therapeutics that stop the fusion process.
They 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. LJI Professor Erica Ollmann Saphire said: "What’s exciting about this study is that we’ve captured snapshots of the fusion process in action. “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 ima.
