Lab-dish advance against MERS virus

MERS
MERS-CoV particles as seen by negative stain electron microscopy. Virions contain characteristic club-like projections emanating from the viral membrane. Credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Chinese scientists said Tuesday they had identified a compound that, in lab dish experiments, blocks infection by the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus.

A type of small protein, also known as a peptide, prevents the spikey virus from fusing with human respiratory cells, they said.

Fusion is a key step in replication of the virus. It enables the virus to infiltrate a cell and hijack its in order to reproduce.

The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, was led by Shibo Jiang at Fudan University in Shanghai.

The peptide, called heptad repeat 2 (HR2P), has "good potential" for development into a future drug against MERS, it says.

So far, HR2P's effects have only been studied on cells in a lab dish and not yet on animals—the next step in a long process to validate any new drug for safety and effectiveness.

The first case of MERS surfaced in Saudi Arabia April 2012.

It is considered a more virulent but less transmissible cousin of SARS, a so-called coronavirus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

There have been 180 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS, including 77 deaths, according to a World Health Organisation (WHO) toll issued on Tuesday.

More information: Paper: press.nature.com/templates/press/images/spacer.gif

Journal information: Nature Communications

© 2014 AFP

Citation: Lab-dish advance against MERS virus (2014, January 28) retrieved 28 March 2024 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-01-lab-dish-advance-mers-virus.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

Explore further

Qatar reports three camel MERS infections

 shares

Feedback to editors