Researchers have identified influenza-causing modifications to the enzyme, which copies influenza virus genomes and, thus, could be used to produce new medicines. According to the researchers at Germany’s University of Muenster, 59 specific modifications have been made to the polymerase of the influenza A virus, which produces virus genome copies.
Researchers found that the modification described in the study was transmitted by proteins in host cells and couldn’t mutate rapidly, unlike virus proteins. Therefore, the modifications represent a promising approach for the production of new medicines, according to a Nature Communications study.
Every year, the influenza season causes problems for hospitals. Despite having been vaccinated, older people and patients with health problems in particular run a heightened risk of falling prey to a severe bout of influenza. What makes influenza viruses particularly dangerous is their ability to mutate quickly, making them increasingly resistant to medications.
As a result, new active ingredients are desperately needed in order to continue providing effective treatment for the illness in the future. According to the study, this is an important step in the right direction.
What is IAV polymerase?
The influenza A virus polymerase (IAV polymerase) is a highly complex protein which has more than just one function.
One of these is that after a structural change it can also make copies of the virus genome, cRNA and vRNA.Without this “switch” of functions, the virus is not able to proliferate.
As Dr. Linda Brunotte and Dr. Franziska Guenl and a team of colleagues now discovered, according to the study, the IAV polymerase needs proteins from the host cell to act as “molecular switches” and carry out its diverse functions.
These proteins are enzymes which dock so-called ubiquitin proteins onto specific places in the polymerase and, as a result, trigger the signal for the switch of functions, the study said.
“We were able to produce a map showing 59 positions on the viral polymerase to which ubiquitin was attached through the host cell. These are completely new findings which reveal the Achilles’ heel of the influenza A virus,” explained Brunotte, who initiated the study, reported PTI.
This ubiquitination had a definite influence on the activity of the polymerase at 17 spots, the study said.
Moreover, one specific position was discovered whose modification represents the signal for the conversion and the associated switch of functions in the polymerase, the study said.
(With PTI inputs)
