A research group led by Professor Takashi Sera and Assistant Professor Tomoaki Mori of the Graduate School of Natural Sciences, Okayama University has developed a population scissors "artificial RNA cleavage enzyme" that can cut "genome RNA", which is the genetic information of viruses, in a short time. succeeded in.It can deal with various viruses including influenza virus, and is expected to be applied to prevention of viral diseases and drug discovery.
According to Okayama University, the scissors are proteins designed to bind to the RNA of the targeted virus, fused with enzymes that digest the RNA of the virus.The researchers used an artificial RNA-cleaving enzyme on the influenza virus, which has a problem of infecting humans and birds, and confirmed that it could be cleaved within 5 minutes.
Even if the virus invades the body, it does not get sick unless it increases, but when it propagates, it can cause serious illness.It has the genetic information necessary to make and multiply its own copy in the human body, and is divided into RNA virus and DNA virus according to its genome.
In addition to influenza virus, AIDS virus, hepatitis C virus, and Ebola virus that shook the world this year are also classified as RNA viruses.However, if the RNA of the virus is divided into shreds in the invading cells, the virus cannot propagate and the disease can be suppressed.
By exchanging the binding protein in the RNA-cleaving enzyme, the scissors can be adapted to viruses other than influenza.It is expected that it can be applied not only to animals but also to plants, and it is likely to be used in various fields.
