3 ms·
it would be great if the news source actually said, in human terms, what the discovery was. I'm looking at the paper and I don't understand the nuance. I know
by KaiserPro 3y ago
it would be great if the news source actually said, in human terms, what the discovery was. I'm looking at the paper and I don't understand the nuance.
I know science reporting is hard, but this news piece could be copied and pasted to virtually any other paper with minimal effort and still have the same level of insight.
- Roxxik 3y ago[flagged]
- vouaobrasil 3y agoFrom the paper discussion: > In this study, we demonstrated that the VP35 protein of EBOV interacts non-covalently with unanchored K63-linked polyUb chains. This interaction between Ub and VP35 promotes viral polymerase activity leading to optimal virus replication. > Using a pharmacological approach to block Ub-VP35 interactions, we showed that these interactions are relevant in promoting polymerase activity and replication of infectious EBOV. However, loss of Ub interaction with VP35 did not show a perfect correlation with the reduced polymerase activity and virus replication. In short, it seems as though the ebola VP35 protein interacts with certain types of ubiquitin proteins (a protein found in most of our cells) and that blocking this interaction with drugs led to reduced but not zero replication. I figure their line of reasoning is to determine which interactions between proteins are crucial and then design some drugs with the help of computation models to severely reduce replication -- so far, no real success but a step in the right direction.
- KaiserPro 3y agoYou are a star, I thank you for your time.