Thanks to the collaboration between three Polish universities, we now understand the mechanisms behind the NS3 protease – one of the most important enzymes used by the Zika virus to develop.
The research team which made the discovery is composed of scientists from the University of Gdańsk, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, and the Jagiellonian University. They studied the NS3 protease because it’s an enzyme responsible for the development of other virus proteins as well as its replication.
The research was published in the Federation of European Biochemical Societies’ journal Letters. Three scientists from the JU Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology – Jose Ignacio Rodriguez Martinez, Michał Burmistrz, and Krzysztof Pyrć – have participated in the project. They were responsible for the biological part of the research.
The data acquired by Polish scientists give us hope for finding effective inhibitors of Zika protease, thereby allowing us to create medicine that would combat the diseases related to this pathogen.
The Zika virus has been knows since the 1940s. It is named after a forest populated by monkeys which were first observed to be infected by the virus. Humans are its main host. The symptoms of the virus are at first very similar to the common flu. However, it’s dangerous for pregnant women, as it may cause microcephaly – there have been some cases in Brazil.
Photograph: Zika virus (green) on Vero cells by Katarzyna Kosowicz.
Original text: www.nauka.uj.edu.pl
