Drug Discovery and Development

  • Home Drug Discovery and Development
  • Drug Discovery
  • Genomics/Proteomics
  • Oncology
  • Neurological Disease
  • Infectious Disease
  • R&D 100 Awards
  • Pharma 50
    • 2022 Pharma 50
    • 2021 Pharma 50

Liquid DNA behind virus attacks

By Drug Discovery Trends Editor | October 6, 2014

Alex Evilevitch, a researcher in biochemistry and biophysics at Lund Univ. and Carnegie Mellon Univ. has shown in two studies how virus DNA enters cells.Viruses can convert their DNA from solid to fluid form, which explains how viruses manage to eject DNA into the cells of their victims. This has been shown in two new studies carried out by Lund University in Sweden.

Both research studies are about the same discovery made for two different viruses, namely that viruses can convert their DNA to liquid form at the moment of infection. Thanks to this conversion, the virus can more easily transfer its DNA into the cells of its victim, which thus become infected. One of the studies investigated the herpes virus, which infects humans.

“Our results explain the mechanism behind herpes infection by showing how the DNA of the virus enters the cell,” said Alex Evilevitch, a researcher in biochemistry and biophysics at Lund University and Carnegie Mellon University.

Evilevitch stated that the discovery was surprising. No one was previously aware of the “phase transition” from solid to fluid form in virus DNA. The phase transition for the studied herpes virus is temperature-dependent and takes place at 37 C, which is a direct adaptation to human body temperature. Evilevitch hopes that the research findings will lead to a new type of medicine that targets the phase transition for virus DNA, which could then reduce the infection capability and limit the spread of the virus.

“A drug of this type affects the physical properties of the virus’s DNA, which means that the drug can resist the virus’s mutations,” said Evilevitch.

The second study that Evilevitch and his colleagues have published recently is about bacteriophages, i.e. viruses that infect bacteria, in this case E. coli bacteria in the human gastrointestinal tract. The results show that this virus also has the ability to convert its DNA from solid to fluid form. As with the herpes virus, the phase transition takes place at 37 C, i.e. adapted to human body temperature.

These two virus types, bacteriophages and the herpes virus, separated at an early stage in evolution, several billion years ago. The fact that they both demonstrate the same ability to convert their DNA in order to facilitate infection indicates that this could be a general mechanism found in many types of virus.

In previous studies, Evilevitch and his colleagues have succeeded in measuring the DNA pressure inside the virus that provides the driving force for infection. The pressure is five times higher than in an unopened champagne bottle. This high pressure is generated by very tightly packed DNA inside the virus. The pressure serves as a trigger that enables the virus to eject its DNA into a cell in the host organism. It was this discovery that led to the two present studies, which were recently published in Nature Chemical Biology and PNAS.

Publications:

Solid-to-fluid DNA transition inside HSV-1 capsid close to the temperature of infection

Solid-to-fluid–like DNA transition in viruses facilitates infection

Source: Lund Univ.

 

Filed Under: Drug Discovery

 

Related Articles Read More >

Takeda Pharmaceutical in the Drug Discovery & Development Pharma 50
Takeda’s Takhzyro fares well in pediatric hereditary angioedema study
Novartis in the Pharma 50
Novartis to cut up to 8,000 positions
Gilead Sciences in the Drug Discovery & Development Pharma 50
Gilead resubmits application to FDA for twice-yearly HIV drug lenacapavir
George Floyd mural
How the pandemic and George Floyd made clinical trial diversity a priority

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.

Need Drug Discovery news in a minute?

We Deliver!
Drug Discovery & Development Enewsletters get you caught up on all the mission critical news you need. Sign up today.
Enews Signup
Drug Discovery and Development
  • MASSDEVICE
  • DEVICETALKS
  • Medical Design & Outsourcing
  • MEDICAL TUBING + EXTRUSION
  • MEDTECH 100
  • Medical Design Sourcing
  • Subscribe to our Free E-Newsletter
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Advertise With Us
  • R&D World
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search Drug Discovery & Development

  • Home Drug Discovery and Development
  • Drug Discovery
  • Genomics/Proteomics
  • Oncology
  • Neurological Disease
  • Infectious Disease
  • R&D 100 Awards
  • Pharma 50
    • 2022 Pharma 50
    • 2021 Pharma 50