Researchers from the University of Leeds recently conducted a study of the virus called Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV). The virus can cause a range of diseases, which often involve infections of nerve cells. This infection will often result in repeated recurrences in between disease free periods, as the disease cannot be cured. HSV causes e.g. cancer, genital herpes and cold sores – diseases affecting many people in the UK.
In the study, the researchers found a way to avoid the situation where the virus takes over important functional processes in the cells – a process necessary for the virus to replicate and cause disease.
Important process for the virus infection
After 5 years of researching HSV and its ability to infect cells at a molecular level, the hard work pays off. Researchers have recently shown that a protein found in all herpesviruses recruits a protein complex in the infected cell (the host cell). This protein complex is called TREX. When this happens, the virus is able to survive in cells and replicate. More specifically, this process helps the virus transport its protein-coding sequences out of the cell nucleus, after which these sequences are turned into viral proteins.
A means of treating virus infections
Along with this knowledge of the virus infection, researchers studied how to stop this process. After performing a screening of thousands of compounds and testing them on cells, they found a compound able to stop the virus from replicating and creating new infectious particles without damaging the host cell. The compound is part of an important component of the cellular human TREX complex, and inhibiting this activity stopped the complex from interacting with the viral protein.
In fact, the researchers first studied the human tumour virus called Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus. However, further testing showed that the compound was also effective against other types of herpesvirus which all use the same method of replicating in the host cell, and the results were encouraging. Among these types of herpesviruses were the types that cause cold sores and genital sores.
The results from the study sound very encouraging in terms of a new treatment being under way. Researchers now have to continue working with the compound which stops the interaction between TREX and viral proteins in order to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of the compound, so it becomes ready to operate as an antiviral drug against herpes infections in the future.
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