[priyasaravanan_1406]

Could the identification of the structure of the key protein in the dangerous Nipah virus be a step towards drug development against Nipah virus infection?

Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in their untiring effort to understand the proteins of the most harmful Nipah virus finally unraveled the structure of the key protein present in the Virus.

Nipah Virus, the most deadly virus classified under the Biosafety Level 4 pathogen is known to habitat the south East Asian countries like Malaysia, Bangladesh and India and also Australia. The virus belongs to the family of paramyxoviridae and fruit bats were identified to be the hosts of this virus. The first ever outbreak of Nipah virus infection was recorded in the year 1999 in Malaysia. Though the virus is known to infect domestic animals like dogs, cats, sheep and goat, the most susceptible species are pigs and humans where the Nipah virus infection proves to be fatal.

Fruit bats being the carriers of the Nipah virus spread the virus among farm animals and also deliver the virus to other places of their migration. The mode of transmission of Nipah virus is as follows,
- Enter pigs though oral route
- Infected pigs to healthy pigs
- Infected pigs to humans

Nipah virus worsens the health of the infected individual causing severities like coma and death of the individual. Though the pathogenicity of the virus is known, there is no antiviral drug developed/available to treat Nipah virus infection till date.

The research carried out by Jessica Bruhn along with fellow researchers guided by prof. Erica Ollmann Saphire in The Scripps Research Institute on Nipah virus resulted in the identification of the structure of the key protein “phospho protein or Nipah Virus P protein” which acts as a significant tool in Nipah virus replication. The Rutherford Appleton lab’s software AMPLE supported the research work in determining the structure of the protein. Researchers found that P protein is a tetramer with curly structure and also the team was baffled by noticing the similarities between the identified P protein structure and the protein present in mumps and measles virus.

The identification of the P protein structure of Nipah virus opens door to the development of antiviral drug to treat Nipah virus infection which seems to be very essential as Nipah virus being the Biosafety Level 4 pathogen.

Reference
http://www.popsci.com/article/science/ch...ipah-virus
http://www.scripps.edu/newsandviews/e_20...nipah.html
http://topnews.net.nz/content/230897-str...rus-solved
http://www.spc.int/lrd/ext/disease_manua...ction.html
Image source: Wikipedia (User:Rhys)