PLoS Biol: Tsinghua University, Sichuan University and Chinese Academy of Sciences

May 8, 2019 news / Bio Valley bio / a new study published in PLoS Biology recently shows that structure-based drug design shows that a drug used to treat head and neck cancer in the past can be used as a lead compound to develop drugs to treat hepatitis A virus infection This study was conducted by Dan Su of Sichuan University, Zihe Rao of Tsinghua University, Xiangxi of Chinese Academy of Sciences Wang and their colleagues did it together Hepatitis A is an infectious disease caused by a small RNA virus, which infects about 1.5 million people every year and continues to cause major death Although there is an effective vaccine, antiviral drugs are still needed during the outbreak to fight against hepatitis A infection, so far there is no approved treatment The authors suggest that a better understanding of how neutralizing antibodies naturally protect cells from hepatitis A infection may be helpful for the development of antiviral drugs against hepatitis A Photo source: PLoS Biol in this new study, the authors report four powerful hepatitis A virus specific neutralizing antibodies, as well as one of their previously reported antibodies, which can effectively inhibit hepatitis A virus infection by inhibiting the ability of the virus to attach to the host cells The structure of hepatitis A virus combined with antibody was observed by high resolution low temperature electron microscope This enables them to have a deeper understanding of how antibodies neutralize the structural basis of the virus and provides a basis for the rational design of efficient inhibitors Using the molecular model, the author found a promising inhibitor named golvatinib from the drug database The ability to block virus infection was confirmed by experiments in vitro, and its mechanism and mechanism were revealed The author believes that this method can provide a reference for the rational design of effective drugs for the treatment of small RNA virus infection Reference: Cao L, Liu P, Yang P, Gao Q, Li h, sun y, et al (2019) structural basis for decentralization of patents a virus information a rational design of high potential investors PLoS Biol 17 (4): e3000229 Doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000229