Scientists have determined the structure of the enzyme endomannosidase, significantly advancing understanding of how a group of devastating human viruses including HIV and Hepatitis C hijack human enzymes to reproduce and cause disease.
The findings open the door to the development of new drugs to combat these deadly viruses that infect more than 180 million people worldwide. The team of international scientists studied bacterial endomannosidase as a model for the same human enzyme and successfully determined the three dimensional structure of the enzyme using state of the art synchrotron technology. Knowing the structure of the enzyme reveals details on how viruses hijack human enzymes and use them to replicate and cause infection.
A/Prof Spencer Williams, Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; http://newsroom.melbourne.edu/news/n-731