Researchers have now provided a new insight on the mechanics of a virus that causes severe diarrhea and sickness in young children, reports a new research published recently in the journal eLife.
The study, conducted together by the Autonomous University of Madrid, Carlos III Health Institute and National Center for Biotechnology, Spain, has the potential to open up new avenues for developing better and effective treatments for rotavirus, which usually infects children up to five years old. The paper is one of the first to detail the give and take relationship between the function and mechanical properties of a ‘multilayered’ virus.
Virus particles cage their genetic material in a protein shell that is designed to protect, shuttle and release its genome at the host cell. Therefore, the structure of virus particles need to be strong enough to protect the viral genome in environments that exist outside the cell, and to withstand attacks from the host immune system, to ensure that infection is successful.
A lot of double-stranded RNA viruses, such as rotavirus, isolate their genome inside a core shell that includes its own molecular machinery which lets the genome to replicate and spread. Some of the viruses go one step ahead and build extra concentric protein layers that can function in other ways, such as helping them bind and penetrate their target cells.
“The complete particle of rotavirus is formed by three independent protein shells. This particle and the subviral particles containing one or two protein layers play distinct roles during infection,” explained lead author Manuel Jiménez-Zaragoza, a research assistant in the Department of Physics of Condensed Matter at the Autonomous University of Madrid. “We wanted to see how the interactions between the layers that define these different particles work together during the virus replication cycle.”
“Our findings reveal how the biophysical properties of the three protein shells are fine-tuned to enable rotavirus to be carried among host cells,” added senior author Pedro de Pablo, who is an Associate Professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid. “We believe this could prove valuable in offering new venues for the development of novel antiviral strategies.”