mBio: Viruses may use a special "bait strategy" to evade attacks by the host immune system.

August 16, 2020 // -- In a recent study published in the international journal mBio, scientists from the University of Otago and other institutions used research to reveal how viruses use a bait strategy to evade attacks by the host immune system, and the results may help develop new treatments for COVID-19.
Photo Source: University of Otago, researchers focused on a virus called OrNV, an important biological control agent against coconut-tree rhino beetles, a pest that can be devastating to coconut and oil palm trees in Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands.
researchers have found that the OrNV virus can use a bait strategy to evade the host immune system, and studies may help understand the pathogenesis of infectious diseases. Using the same technique,
researchers also investigated changes in cells infected with SARS-CoV-2, which replicate and assemble in the nucleus, and evolved special methods to modify the environment of the host cell nucleus for their benefit.
viruses get a layer of membrane inside the nucleus of the infected cell so that they are equipped and infected with new cells at new precise locations, in contrast to envelope viruses such as coronavirus, which is also a thin-film virus whose membrane structure comes from other cell spacing.
The researchers point out that when fully assembled, the virus uses a clever strategy to travel through different environments and wrap it in a different membrane structure until it is released on the cell membrane; In the membrane, the immune system ignores the viruses, which are used by the membrane "bait" to pass through any type of cell without the need for virus-specific subjects; in this study, the researchers reveal a new strategy used by insect viruses, and the results apply equally to the study of various types of viral infections, such as human viruses. Bostina, a
researcher, says the virus may also use a different strategy to intercept infected cells, a reminder that scientists should be aware of new mechanisms of virus transmission; the virus will never stop using its tireless "weapons arsenal" to infect hosts, and that only by delving into its pathogenic mechanisms may scientists be able to help find a way to fight the virus in the future.
original source: Sailakshmi Velamoor, Allan Mitchell, Bruno M. Humbel, et al. Visualizing Nudivirus Assembly and Egress, mBio (2020). DOI:10.1128/mBio.01333-20.