WSU Researchers Unlock Secret to Preventing Viral Invasion

Washington State University researchers have found a way to modulate a common virus protein to prevent viruses from entering cells where it can cause illness, a discovery that could someday lead to new antiviral treatments. In the fundamental research, reported in the journalNanoscale,the researchers in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and the Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Pathology were able to find and block an important interaction at the molecular level that allows the herpes virus to enter cells. "Viruses are very smart," said Jin Liu, corresponding author on the paper and a professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. "The whole process of invading cells is very complex, and there are a lot of interactions. Not all of the interactions are equally important—most of them may just be background noise, but there are some critical interactions." In their work, the researchers worked with a"fusion" proteinthat is used by herpes viruses to fuse with and enter cells to cause many illnesses. Researchers have a poor understanding of how exactly the complex protein opens up and invades cells, which is part of the reason that there aren't vaccines for these common types of viruses.