AEG12 Protein
Context: According to scientists at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), a mosquito protein, called AEG12, strongly inhibits the family of viruses that cause yellow fever, dengue, West Nile, and Zika, and also weakly inhibits coronaviruses.
Details:
- The researchers found that AEG12 works by destabilising the viral envelope, breaking its protective covering.
- The protein does not affect viruses that do not have an envelope.
- The findings, however, could lead to therapeutics against viruses that affect millions of people around the world.
- Scientists at the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of NIH, used X-ray crystallography to solve the structure of AEG12.
- AEG12 rips out the lipids (the fat-like portions of the membrane that hold the virus together).