Cell<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cThey retain their ability to activate the immune system but are no longer vulnerable to the virus\u2019s tricks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite its prevalence, there is no vaccine for HCMV and recent efforts stalled following setbacks. Current treatments rely on antiviral drugs that can have toxic side effects and lead to drug resistance, creating an urgent need for safer and more effective therapies.<\/p>\n
The virus spreads from person to person through body fluids. And like all herpesviruses such as canker sores and chicken pox, it stays in the body for life after infection.<\/p>\n
In experiments, the antibody prevented the virus from spreading between cells, a key feature of HCMV that makes it so difficult to control. The antibodies significantly reduced viral dissemination in infected cell cultures, showing the ability to slow the spread of the virus.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like a tug-of-war between the virus and the immune system,\u201d says Ahlam N. Qerqez, lead author of the study, a former doctoral student in Maynard\u2019s lab, and now a senior scientist at Denali Therapeutics.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe virus has evolved clever strategies to pull antibodies away from their intended targets, making it harder for the immune system to do its job.\u201d<\/p>\n
The virus produces special proteins called viral Fc receptors (vFc\u03b3Rs) that interfere with the body\u2019s natural defense mechanisms. These proteins bind to antibodies\u2014immune system molecules that normally help fight infections\u2014and prevent them from activating immune cells such as natural killer (NK) cells. NK cells are responsible for clearing out infected cells, but HCMV\u2019s vFc\u03b3Rs essentially \u201chijack\u201d antibodies, rendering them ineffective.<\/p>\n
The engineered antibodies are designed to avoid HCMV\u2019s vFc\u03b3Rs while still activating NK cells to attack infected cells.<\/p>\n
The team focused on a specific type of antibody called IgG1, which plays a key role in fighting infections. By studying how HCMV interacts with IgG1, the researchers identified the exact regions of the antibody that the virus targets and altered them to prevent the virus from binding.<\/p>\n
For most healthy individuals, HCMV sits dormant and causes no symptoms. However, for people with weakened immune systems\u2014such as organ transplant recipients, cancer patients, and newborns\u2014the virus can lead to severe complications, including organ damage, developmental delays, and even death. HCMV is also the leading infectious cause of congenital birth defects, affecting up to 2% of pregnancies worldwide.<\/p>\n
The antibody engineering techniques developed by the team could be applied to other viruses that use similar immune evasion strategies, such as other herpesviruses and even certain bacterial infections. Additionally, the findings highlight the importance of targeting infected cells\u2014not just the virus itself\u2014in developing effective treatments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis work represents a paradigm shift in how we think about antiviral therapies,\u201d says Jason McLellan, a professor in the College of Natural Sciences\u2019 molecular biosciences department at UT and coauthor of the paper.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of just trying to neutralize the virus, we\u2019re focusing on empowering the immune system to clear infected cells. It\u2019s a more holistic approach that could lead to better patient outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The engineered proteins will require several more rounds of testing before they can be used in clinical settings. The team is also investigating combining their approach with other therapies, such as antiviral drugs or vaccines, to create a comprehensive treatment strategy.<\/p>\n
Additional team members are from UT Austin, Cardiff University\u2019s School of Medicine, and the University of Freiburg.<\/p>\n
Source: UT Austin<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Share this Article You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4.0 International license. Researchers have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,105,55501],"class_list":{"0":"post-376819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-technology","11":"tag-viruses"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}