AsianScientist (Jan. 12, 2015) – Researchers from the University of Melbourne and Griffith University’s Institute for Glycomics have significantly advanced understanding of a virus that kills up to half a million children each year. Their research, published in Nature Communications, reveals how the virus attacks cells though carbohydrate receptors present on a child’s intestinal cells.
Rotaviruses are considered the most important cause of severe diarrhea in children, with all being infected by the time they reach the age of five.
Associate Professor Barbara Coulson, of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity at the University of Melbourne and a co-senior author said the discovery has implications for childhood susceptibility to rotavirus disease.
“What we have found is that not all human rotaviruses recognize the same sugar receptor and this important information will be invaluable in the discovery of anti-rotaviral drugs,” she says.
The study deepens our understanding of how this virus starts to infect cells and provides new direction in potential drug discovery.
Dr Thomas Haselhorst, an Australian Research Council Future Fellow at the Institute and a co-senior author on the paper, says the findings also offer potential for new vaccine development strategies.
“We are very excited by our findings, as we now have a much better understanding of the carbohydrates important for the virus to latch on to for successful infection.”
The article can be found at: Böhm et al. (2015) Revisiting the Role of Histo-Blood Group Antigens in Rotavirus Host-Cell Invasion.
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Source: University of Melbourne.
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