(Press-News.org) Researchers have identified the mechanism used by the deadly MERS virus to transmit from bats to humans. Bats are a native reservoir for MERS and the finding could be critical for understanding the animal origins of the virus, as well as preventing and controlling the spread of MERS and related viruses in humans.
The findings were published in the most recent edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Leading the research was Fang Li, Ph.D., associate professor of Pharmacology at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Graduate students Yang Yang and Chang Liu from Professor Li's lab participated in the research. The study was conducted in collaboration with Shibo Jiang, M.D., Ph.D. and Lanying Du, Ph.D., from the New York Blood Center, and Ralph Baric, Ph.D., from the University of North Carolina.
MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) was first diagnosed in 2012 and has infected over 800 people worldwide since then. About 40 percent of those infected were killed by the disease. Research has linked MERS to the same coronavirus family as the epidemic virus SARS. Both are believed to have originated in bats.
Researchers have known the MERS virus infects human cells by attaching itself to a receptor molecule called dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) and then entering human cells. However, it was not known how MERS was being transmitted from bats to humans.
"We wanted to better understand what prompted MERS to jump from bats to humans, and knew we needed to find a virus that was isolated in bats but had the potential to move into a human model," said Li. "HKU4 virus is related to MERS and has, so far, infected bats but not humans. It provided a good model for understanding the bat-to-human transmission process of MERS and related viruses."
After investigating both MERS and HKU4, researchers observed two major indicators MERS had adapted to human cells in a way HKU4 had not done yet.
The first discovery was that HKU4 virus recognizes the same receptor, DPP4, as MERS virus.. However, MERS virus uses the DPP4 molecule from human origin better, whereas HKU4 virus uses the DPP4 molecule from bat origin better. HKU4 also struggles to enter human cells once attached to the DPP4 receptor on the human cell surface. MERS does not have such a problem, though both viruses are able to enter bat cells.
"Overall, our findings suggest that MERS virus has successfully adapted to human cells for efficient infections, and HKU4 virus can potentially infect human cells," said Li. "MERS and MERS-related bat viruses present a constant and long-term threat to human health. So far little is known about these bat viruses that are evolutionary ancestors to human viruses. We need to look at bat viruses carefully, learn how they infect cells and jump species, and then develop strategies to block their transmission to humans."
INFORMATION:
This research was performed using funding from National Institutes of Health grant numbers R01AI089728 and R21AI09094.
The University of Minnesota Medical School, with its two campuses in the Twin Cities and Duluth, is a leading educator of the next generation of physicians. Our graduates and the school's 3,800 faculty physicians and scientists advance patient care, discover biomedical research breakthroughs with more than $180 million in sponsored research annually, and enhance health through world-class patient care for the state of Minnesota and beyond. Visit http://www.med.umn.edu to learn more.
UMN and NYBC research finds potential MERS transmission mechanism between bats and humans
2014-08-12
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Notre Dame paper offers insights into a new class of semiconducting materials
2014-08-12
A new paper by University of Notre Dame researchers describes their investigations of the fundamental optical properties of a new class of semiconducting materials known as organic-inorganic "hybrid" perovskites.
The research was conducted at the Notre Dame Radiation Laboratory by Joseph Manser, a doctoral student in chemical and biomolecular engineering, under the direction of Prashant Kamat, Rev. John A. Zahm Professor of Science. The findings appear in a paper in the August 10 edition of the journal Nature Photonics.
The term "perovskites" refers to the structural ...
New analysis reveals tumor weaknesses
2014-08-12
CAMBRIDGE, Mass-- Scientists have known for decades that cancer can be caused by genetic mutations, but more recently they have discovered that chemical modifications of a gene can also contribute to cancer. These alterations, known as epigenetic modifications, control whether a gene is turned on or off.
Analyzing these modifications can provide important clues to the type of tumor a patient has, and how it will respond to different drugs. For example, patients with glioblastoma, a type of brain tumor, respond well to a certain class of drugs known as alkylating agents ...
Federal Drug Discount Program faces challenges, report finds
2014-08-12
A federal program that provides billions in drug discounts to safety net hospitals and other health care providers is expanding under health care reform, but divergent views on the purpose and future scope of the program creates uncertainty for safety net providers and drug manufacturers, according to new report from the RAND Corporation.
The so-called 340B program faces a number of critical issues, such as whether to change and better define eligibility, strengthen compliance efforts and provide greater transparency about the discounts provided through the program, according ...
Digital literacy reduces cognitive decline in older adults, experts find
2014-08-12
Researchers have found a link between digital literacy and a reduction in cognitive decline, according to a study published in The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Medical Sciences on July 8th.
Led by Andre Junqueira Xavier at the Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina, this is the first major study to show that digital literacy, or the ability to engage, plan and execute digital actions such as web browsing and exchanging emails, can improve memory.
Drawn from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, the study followed 6442 participants in the UK between the ages ...
Regional anesthesia for pediatric knee surgery reduces pain, speeds recovery
2014-08-12
VIDEO:
As many as 98 percent of all pediatric knee surgeries performed at Nationwide Children's Hospital were done in an outpatient setting, as a result of this method that reduces...
Click here for more information.
A recent study of an ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia technique, called femoral nerve block, shows that it leads to less opioid use and allows the majority of patients to go home within hours of surgery. As many as 98 percent of all pediatric knee surgeries ...
Oxidative stress is significant predictor for hip fracture, research shows
2014-08-12
CINCINNATI—Oxidative stress is a significant predictor for hip fracture in postmenopausal women, according to new research led by University of Cincinnati (UC) epidemiologists.
The research, appearing online ahead of print in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, was led by Tianying Wu, MD, PhD, an assistant professor in the UC College of Medicine Department of Environmental Health, and Shuman Yang, a postdoctoral fellow in the department. They collaborated with researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School.
"To our knowledge, this ...
Fires in Northern Washington State
2014-08-12
The Pacific Northwest has been inundated with wildfires most stemming from lightning strikes during summer storms. Four of these wildfires can be seen in this natural-color Aqua satellite image collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS, instrument aboard. This image was taken on August 11, 2014. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS's thermal bands, are outlined in red.
The Upper Falls wildfire was started by a lightning strike on August 03. It is located 17 Miles North of Winthrop WA, 37 miles Northwest of Omak, WA and has grown to ...
NASA sees a weaker Tropical Storm Julio far north of Hawaii
2014-08-12
Tropical Storm Julio continues to weaken as it moves through cooler waters of the Central Pacific Ocean. NASA's Terra satellite passed over Julio and saw that the bulk of the clouds and precipitation were being pushed to the34 north of the center as the storm tracked far north of the Hawaiian Islands.
NASA's Terra satellite passed over Julio on August 11 at 21:25 UTC (5:25 p.m. EDT) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard took a visible picture of the storm. The MODIS image revealed a circular center, but most of the clouds and ...
Copper foam turns carbon dioxide into useful chemicals
2014-08-12
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A catalyst made from a foamy form of copper has vastly different electrochemical properties from catalysts made with smooth copper in reactions involving carbon dioxide, a new study shows. The research, by scientists in Brown University's Center for the Capture and Conversion of CO2, suggests that copper foams could provide a new way of converting excess CO2 into useful industrial chemicals.
The research is published in the journal ACS Catalysis.
As levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere continue to rise, researchers are looking for ways to make ...
Geckos use toe hairs to turn stickiness on/off
2014-08-12
WASHINGTON D.C. Aug. 12, 2014 -- If you've ever spent any time watching a gecko, you may have wondered about their uncanny ability to adhere to any surface -- including upside down on ceilings. It turns out the little lizards can turn the "stickiness" of toe hairs on the bottom of their feet on and off, which enables them to run at great speeds or even cling to ceilings without expending much energy.
In the Journal of Applied Physics, from AIP Publishing, Oregon State University (OSU) researchers describe their work exploring the subtleties of geckos' adhesion system ...