A clamp for emerging flu viruses
Wednesday, April 28, 2010 - 12:22
in Health & Medicine
When the human body becomes infected with new influenza viruses, the immune system rapidly activates an inborn protective mechanism to inhibit the intruding pathogen. A protein known as Mx plays an important role in this process, keeping the spread of viruses in check. Exactly how Mx accomplishes this task was previously unknown. Now German virologists from the Institute of Medical Microbiology at the Freiburg University Medical Center and structural biologists from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin-Buch have unraveled the structure of the Mx protein and are able to explain how it develops its anti-viral effect.