Flu focus: NIH project aims for better drugs

October 20, 2009

Rice University scientists have won a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to scrutinize the influenza A virus for clues that could lead to more effective antiviral drugs. Strains of influenza A include this year's pandemic H1N1 variety, some seasonal varieties and the much-feared H5N1 bird flu.

Under the four-year program, biochemists in the laboratory of Rice's Jane Tao will continue their groundbreaking investigations into the form and function of nucleoprotein (NP), one of fewer than a dozen proteins encoded by the .

All varieties of A consist of variants of just eight genes --encoded in RNA -- that produce 11 proteins. But for all its apparent simplicity, the disease behaves in complex ways that have stymied scientists for decades.

For instance, when flu particles dock with healthy cells, they inject their genetic payload into the cell and hijack the cell's own machinery to make copies of themselves. Based on previous research -- including an influential 2006 report by Tao and University of Texas at Austin colleague Robert Krug -- scientists know the flu can replicate only when all eight genes are packaged in a particular way. Tao, who first deciphered the of NP for that study, said the new research program will go a step further by systematically investigating NP's role in building the RNA package that's so critical for the virus to reproduce.

"This particular form is very important for the RNA to function as a template, but we do not understand how the flu packages only the eight segments that it needs and in the right order," Tao said. "It's the specificity that's intriguing. If you package eight random segments of RNA, the chances of getting a viable virus are very low."

Scientists know that in the viable package, NPs are stacked atop one another -- much of like vertebrae in a spine -- and the RNA segments wrap around the stack. A protein complex called the , which is attached at the end of RNA, helps kick off replication once the assembly is injected into a healthy cell.

Tao said her team will use several techniques, including X-ray crystallography and electron cryomicroscopy, to obtain the first three-dimensional structure of the RNA-wrapped NP complex, a structure known as the ribonucleoprotein complex. The group will also purify individual segments of RNA, NP and polymerase; using some painstaking trial-and-error tests, they also will try to decipher the order and arrangements that must be brought together to create a viable ribonucleoprotein.

Krug's group will help determine the function of the various NP structures in replicating the viral RNA segments in cells, as well as how amino acid changes in the NP structure affect the ability of NP to function with the polymerase.

"We want to understand the assembly process," Tao said. "How do all those molecules come together? Obviously it cannot happen all at once. It must take place in a sequential manner, but that process is very poorly understood at the moment."

Krug said the funding for the project -- which comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- arrives at a fortuitous time. "The is front and center in people's minds right now because of H1N1, and thanks to this grant, we're able to pursue an important new line of research that could answer fundamental questions about the disease."

Source: Rice University (news : web)


Rank not rated yet
Related Stories
Relevant PhysicsForums posts
  • Factors affecting beet root cell membrane
    created1 hour ago
  • Stem cell question.
    createdFeb 10, 2012
  • Protease cleavage
    createdFeb 10, 2012
  • Pertubance in a model
    createdFeb 10, 2012
  • Cancer drugs and Alzheimer's, Oh my!
    createdFeb 09, 2012
  • Squishing cells
    createdFeb 09, 2012
  • More from Physics Forums - Biology

More news stories

Entire genome of extinct human decoded from fossil

(PhysOrg.com) -- In 2010, Svante Pääbo and his colleagues presented a draft version of the genome from a small fragment of a human finger bone discovered in Denisova Cave in southern Siberia. The ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Feb 07, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (58) | comments 46 | with audio podcast

Why are there so few fish in the Earth's oceans?

(PhysOrg.com) -- A Stony Brook University researcher has found that, contrary to popular belief, there are not plenty of fish in the sea.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (17) | comments 26 | with audio podcast

Miami battling invasion of giant African snails

No one knows how they got there. But an invasion of African giant snails has southern Florida in a panic over potential crop damage, disease and general yuckiness surrounding the slimy gastropods.

Biology / Ecology

created Feb 10, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 5

Deciding to go left or right: Researchers use device to determine that lower animals can navigate too

For decades, scientists have associated binary decision making — opting to go left or right — with higher-ranking animals, including humans. A team of Harvard researchers, however, is rewriting that ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Feb 09, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Study shows chimps able to understand needs of others

(PhysOrg.com) -- By setting up a unique experiment, a small team of researchers has found that chimpanzees are able to understand need in other chimps, despite their general disinclination to offer aid when ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Feb 07, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 4 | with audio podcast report


Google might launch Drive for cloud storage soon

(PhysOrg.com) -- Google's next big move, according to the Wall Street Journal, is a cloud storage service called Drive. Hardly first to the plate, Google is simply catching up to introducing its cloud reposi ...

Latin America mining boom clashes with conservation

Latin America is experiencing a mining boom as prices rise fuelled by a hike in global demand, but the region is also being hit by a wave of violent protests, strikes and rallies by environmentalists.

Love a click away in Indonesia's Twitter Republic

He was a geeky kid from Yogyakarta, she a glamorous city girl in Jakarta. In a country with one of the world's most vibrant social networking scenes they fell in love on Twitter.

Europeans protest controversial Internet pact

Tens of thousands of people marched in protests in more than a dozen European cities Saturday against a controversial anti-online piracy pact that critics say could curtail Internet freedom.

Walney offshore wind farm is world's biggest (for now)

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Walney wind farm on the Irish Sea--characterized by high tides, waves and windy weather--officially opened this week. The farm is treated in the press as a very big deal as the Walney ...

Navy to begin tests on electromagnetic railgun prototype launcher

The Office of Naval Research (ONR)'s Electromagnetic (EM) Railgun program will take an important step forward in the coming weeks when the first industry railgun prototype launcher is tested at a facility ...