动物实验,戊型肝炎病毒 z-bo 2020-09-29 351

　　Hepatitis virus has always been one of the enemies of human health. In the past few decades, mankind has made great strides in the fight against hepatitis A, B and C. However, no treatment for hepatitis E has been approved. According to statistics from the World Health Organization, 20 million people worldwide are infected with hepatitis E virus every year. The virus is spread mainly through contaminated food and water. Most of these patients are distributed in East Africa and South Africa. In recent years, the number of patients infected with the virus in Europe has increased. One of the important reasons is eating uncooked meat. Therefore, clinical researchers urgently need to develop drugs for hepatitis E.

　　Recently, researchers from Princeton University published a research paper on PNAS, reporting new discoveries in the process of virus infection of cells. This discovery will help develop new treatments against the hepatitis E virus. In the cell cycle of hepatitis E virus infection, a protein called viropolin plays an important role in the process of virus-infected cells releasing mature virus. This protein can pierce the surface of cell membranes, allowing newly assembled and mature viruses to release cells and further infect other healthy cells. Researchers at Princeton University discovered that the open reading frame 3 (ORF-3) of viral RNA plays an important role in the process of virus synthesis of biloporin protein in host cells. To prove this mechanism, the researchers built a model using Xenopus cell lines and measured changes in the model's resistance after virus infection. We found that ORF3RNA played a similar role to the "ion channel" and destroyed it. It helps the physiological function of the cell membrane of the infected cell, thereby releasing mature virus.

　　Next, researchers will use this discovery to study ORF3-related pathways in detail and use it as a target for designing drug molecules to treat hepatitis E. In fact, the idea of interfering with the synthesis of the virus veropine to treat the disease has been widely used to develop drugs for various viral diseases including HIV and hepatitis C.

　　Healthy people have very mild symptoms of hepatitis E virus. However, this virus poses additional risks to people with weakened immune systems and pregnant women. Currently, the hepatitis E virus vaccine is only sold in China. In the future, scientists believe that they will make a breakthrough in the field of this disease.