American researchers have discovered how a powerful neutralising antibody can block off the highly-contagious measles virus, and believe the discovery could go on to assist in the case of more deadly diseases
The prospect of wiping out measles for good appears closer after a significant scientific breakthrough in vaccine technology.
Researchers in the US have identified a neutralising antibody which can block out the highly-contagious virus. Scientists explained the process in which the virus takes hold in the human body. When the virus meets a human cell it reveals key pieces, which allows it to fuse on to the membrane of the host. At the end of the fusion process, the human cell is completely hijacked and now belongs to the virus. The new vaccines – being developed by scientists at California’s La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) – would essentially halt the fusion process in its tracks.
Using an imaging technique called cryo-election microscopy shows how a powerful anitbody is able to neutralise the virus. 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 imaged like this before.”
Researchers believe the discovery could go beyond measles and offers “promising” hopes for similar viruses. Measles is a member of the larger paramyxovirus family, which includes the deadly Nipah virus – a bat-borne condition with a startlingly-high mortality rate. Study first author Dr Dawid Zyla, an LJI postdoctoral researcher, said: “What we learn about the fusion process can be medically relevant for Nipah, parainfluenza viruses, and Hendra virus. These are all viruses with pandemic potential.”
There is no specific treatment for measles, so researchers are looking for antibodies to use as an emergency treatment to prevent severe disease. To better understand how the measles virus fuses with cells, the LJI team turned to an antibody called mAb 77. Researchers have found that mAb 77 targets the measles fusion glycoprotein, the piece of viral machinery measles uses to enter human cells via a specialized process called fusion.
The LJI team investigated exactly how the antibody combats the virus. They found mAb 77 arrests the virus in the middle of the fusion process. Now that they know how mAb 77 works, the research team hope the antibody could be used as part of a treatment “cocktail” to protect people against measles or to treat patients with active measles infection. In a follow-up experiment, they showed that mAb 77 provided “significant” protection against measles in cotton rat models of measles virus infection. Now the team want to study different antibodies against measles. Dr Zyla added: “We’d like to stop fusion at different points in the process and investigate other therapeutic opportunities.”
