Specific proteins can limit the spread of avian influenza

Specific proteins can limit the spread of avian influenza Science and technology daily, Beijing, Jan 7 (reporter Zhang mengran) a virological paper published online this week in nature described a protein that can limit the replication of avian influenza A virus in mammals, clarifying how the protein participates in the replication of the virus at the molecular level, or will open a new way for the development of new antiviral drugs Birds are the source of many other animal flu viruses, including humans At present, we have known that the hemagglutinin structure of avian influenza virus makes it generally infect birds, but when the virus has gene recombination in the process of replication, resulting in structural changes, it can acquire the ability to infect people In other words, most avian influenza can not be replicated in human body without specific variation However, the specific mechanism behind this has not been known This time, Wendy Buckley of Imperial College of technology and her team used a cell line of hamsters with chicken genome fragments to understand how proteins adapted to birds work in mammals They found a single protein, anp32a, that limits the ability of the a-ai virus to work in mammals At the same time, the researchers also found that there is a specific mutation e627k in Pb2, which is known to be related to the virulence enhancement of avian influenza virus in mammals, and the avian influenza virus must obtain the mutation e627k to adapt to its host protein anp32a In the news and opinion article written for this paper by Annie Rowan of Emory University in the United States, she said that it is not clear how the a-ai virus uses the protein anp32a, and if it can be clarified how anp32a participates in the replication of the virus at the molecular level, it may open a way for the development of new antiviral drugs.