University’s breakthrough on viruses (From York Press)

University’s breakthrough on viruses

9:22am Wednesday 11th January 2012 in Health & Wellbeing

SCIENTISTS from the University of York have made a significant breakthrough in understanding how human viruses, including HIV, reproduce.

The achievement of experts at the university, in collaboration with Australian colleagues, has opened the door to the development of drugs to combat deadly viruses, such as HIV and Hepatitis C, which infect more than 180 million people worldwide.

The scientists, led by Professor Gideon Davies, from York University, and associate Professor Spencer Williams, from Melbourne University, studied bacterial endomannosidase as a model for the human enzyme and worked out the three-dimensional structure of the enzyme.

Prof Davies said knowing the structure of the enzyme revealed details on how viruses play biological “piggy-back”, borrowing people’s cellular machinery to replicate and cause disease.

He said: “If we understand how the viruses use our enzymes, we can develop inhibitors that block the pathway they require, opening the door to drug developments.

“We hope that the work will lead beyond viruses and will point the way towards similar treatments for other diseases, including cancer.”