New target for dengue virus vaccine found
Thursday, February 27, 2014 - 09:02
in Biology & Nature
Using an experimental technique new to the dengue field, researchers showed that a molecular hinge where two regions of a protein connect is where natural human antibodies attach to dengue type-3 to disable it. The finding shows that most human antibodies that neutralize the virus bind to this hinge. It's the first study to demonstrate how these binding sites can be genetically exchanged without disrupting the integrity of the virus.