The joint research group of Okinawa Science and Technology Graduate University and others has clarified the three-dimensional structure of the nucleoprotein-RNA complex, which is the core structure of Ebola virus, at the atomic level for the first time in the world by cutting-edge cryo-electron microscopy analysis, and the results are shown. Published in the scientific journal Nature.
Ebola virus is a pathogen that infects humans and causes a highly lethal systemic disease called Ebola hemorrhagic fever. It caused a pandemic in West Africa for two years from the end of 2013, and is still reported in the Republic of the Congo.It is one of the most infectious diseases in the world that needs countermeasures because there are cases where travelers from Africa have returned to Japan and have developed it in their own country, but prevention and treatment methods have not yet been established.
Therefore, the group focused on the nucleoprotein-genome RNA complex, which is the core structure of Ebola virus, and thought that inhibiting the formation of this complex would lead to preventive and therapeutic strategies for Ebola hemorrhagic fever.Notably, we have taken advantage of the ability of nucleoproteins to bind to cellular RNA as well, incorporating a method for safely producing nucleoprotein-RNA complexes without the use of actual Ebola virus.The group took a large number of images of the nucleoprotein-RNA chain complex using the latest cryo-electron microscopy, and used single particle analysis to clarify the three-dimensional structure of the nucleoprotein-RNA complex in detail. And succeeded in constructing the atomic model.
It is expected that this result will greatly contribute to the elucidation of the formation method of Ebola virus and lead to the development of a treatment method for Ebola hemorrhagic fever.
Paper information:[Nature] Cryo-EM structure of the Ebola virus nucleoprotein–RNA complex at 3.6 Å resolution
