Proteins on the outside of influenza A viruses are key to breaching our bodies’ mucous barriers
Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library
Before viruses can infect cells, they must first get to them, often by traversing layers of the body’s protective mucous. Understanding how evolution optimised the influenza A virus for this slimy task could help us create new antiviral drugs.
If you just dropped an influenza A virus into mucous, natural diffusion would never carry it to cells fast enough to cause an infection, says Siddhansh Agarwal at the University of California, Berkeley. Influenza A viruses – the only influenza…
Source link : https://www.newscientist.com/article/2453526-flu-viruses-have-evolved-proteins-that-let-them-break-through-mucous/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=health
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Publish date : 2024-10-28 19:00:05
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