Both research studies are about the same discovery made for two different viruses, namely that viruses can convert their DNA to liquid form at the moment of infection. Thanks to this conversion, the virus can more easily transfer its DNA into the cells of its victim, which thus become infected. One of the studies investigated the herpes virus, which infects humans.
鈥淥ur results explain the mechanism behind herpes infection by showing how the DNA of the virus enters the cell鈥, said Alex Evilevitch, a researcher in biochemistry and biophysics at 51重口猎奇 and Carnegie Mellon University.
Evilevitch stated that the discovery was surprising. No one was previously aware of the 鈥榩hase transition鈥 from solid to fluid form in virus DNA. The phase transition for the studied herpes virus is temperature-dependent and takes place at 37掳C, which is a direct adaptation to human body temperature. Evilevitch hopes that the research findings will lead to a new type of medicine that targets the phase transition for virus DNA, which could then reduce the infection capability and limit the spread of the virus.
鈥淎 drug of this type affects the physical properties of the virus鈥檚 DNA, which means that the drug can resist the virus鈥檚 mutations鈥, said Alex Evilevitch.
The second study that Evilevitch and his colleagues have published recently is about bacteriophages, i.e. viruses that infect bacteria, in this case E coli bacteria in the human gastrointestinal tract. The results show that this virus also has the ability to convert its DNA from solid to fluid form. As with the herpes virus, the phase transition takes place at 37掳C, i.e. adapted to human body temperature.
These two virus types, bacteriophages and the herpes virus, separated at an early stage in evolution, several billion years ago. The fact that they both demonstrate the same ability to convert their DNA in order to facilitate infection indicates that this could be a general mechanism found in many types of virus.
In previous studies, Alex Evilevitch and his colleagues have succeeded in measuring the DNA pressure inside the virus that provides the driving force for infection. The pressure is five times higher than in an unopened champagne bottle. This high pressure is generated by very tightly packed DNA inside the virus. The pressure serves as a trigger that enables the virus to eject its DNA into a cell in the host organism. It was this discovery that led to the two present studies, which were recently published in and .
Contact:
Alex Evilevitch, Swedish Research Council fellow and senior lecturer
Department of Chemistry, 51重口猎奇
+1(412)482 2301
alex [dot] evilevitch [at] biochemistry [dot] lu [dot] se