Researchers Hopeful To Find West Nile Treatment
Researchers have discovered 305 genes for possible treatment of West Nile Virus. The genes were found by tracing all of the enzymes and proteins used by the West Nile virus to contaminate cells.
"It comprises a dictionary of all of these genes that are critical for West Nile virus infection of a cell," said Dr. Erol Fikrig of Yale University. Fikrig’s study was published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, West Nile virus infected an estimated 175,000 people in the U.S. last year, leaving 117 dead, and causing severe sickness in 1,227.
Currently the mosquito-borne virus has no treatment.
Fikrig’s team searched the human genome for vulnerable genes by using a new technology that uses small interfering RNAs. Interfering RNAs are small bits of genetic material capable of shutting down genes, one by one.
Using this method, researchers were able to remove 21,121 genes to find those most vulnerable to West Nile virus.
"We knocked them out individually and then we infected those cells with the West Nile virus to see if the infection was reduced or increased," Fikrig said.
They found a group of 305 genes that, when removed, changed the path of the infection.
"In most cases the infection was reduced. In a few cases, it was enhanced.
That is not unexpected. Our body is meant to fight viruses," he explained.
By looking at clusters of these genes, the researchers found that in order to succeed, the West Nile virus needs a large variety of cells.
Next, Fikrig and his colleagues tested their findings on other viruses in the flavivirus family, home to the West Nile virus.
Researchers found that nearly 30 percent of the genes were used by various viruses in the same family.
Fikrig believes it may be possible to create a therapy to interfere with the West Nile virus, and other flaviviruses, such as yellow fever and tick-borne encephalitis.
Currently research has only occurred on cells in the lab. Fikrig’s next step will be to test his new information in mice.
West Nile first appeared in the U.S. in 1999. The virus begins in birds and spreads to humans through mosquitoes that feed on both.
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