- The body’s own protein ZAP: Würzburg researchers with sensational discovery
- Protein lowers viral load 20 times
- Study phase should start soon
- Is this the next step in developing one Corona drug?
On Friday (December 10, 2021) is in the journal Nature Communications a new Study by the Würzburg Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based infection research (HIRI) and the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig has been published with confident news. The Protein ZAP could the Propagation mechanism of the coronavirusInhibit SARS-CoV-2 and the Viral load reduce by 20 times. This could be an important step in the development of antivirals.
Würzburg study: Protein ZAP inhibits virus replication – what does that mean exactly?
The scientists describe the way viruses work as “Propagation trick”: When they penetrate the cells, they interfere in the process there, which the cells use to read genetic information from a messenger RNA and to produce proteins. By changing the strictly regulated reading direction, the viruses could produce their own proteins and multiply.
The aim of the study was to achieve this Propagation trick of the coronavirusto prevent. The protein ZAP, which is already known as an immunomodulatory and antiviral protein, seems to be the key: “ZAP is a multifunctional molecule in the immune system, which calms an excessive immune response and which Shut down viral activity can “, explains Neva Caliskan, research group leader at HIRI and head of the study. The HIRI doctoral student from Caliskan’s research group Matthias Zimmer adds a particularly positive aspect: the protein binds to the viral RNA that triggers the reading frame shift.
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Important for the future production of antiviral agents is the fact that “host cells with an increased ZAP level are a about 20-fold reduced amount of virus exhibit. The increased occurrence – or lack of – of the protein could therefore also be an indicator of whether a corona infection is going to be mild or severe, “says the press release of the Helmholtz Institute Würzburg. It is still needed further researchto fully understand the molecular mechanisms, but the results so far are already extremely promising.
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