16/12/2024 : Influenza virus genome : finally discovered in its coat

To fight the virus that causes influenza, one of the avenues being explored by scientists is the development of drugs capable of destabilising its genome, made up of eight RNA molecules.

A first article published in 2023 proposed an initial model for the encapsidation of the influenza virus genome.

In a new publication published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research on 16 December 2024, the same scientists have now obtained a high-resolution structure of the Influenza nucleoprotein in an antiparallel helix, that now details precisely all the protein-protein and protein-RNA interactions within the nucleocapsid.

CNRS Press info.

Influenza A virus antiparallel helical nucleocapsid-like pseudo-atomic structure. Florian Chenavier, Eleftherios Zarkadas, Lily-Lorette Freslon, Alice J. Stelfox, Guy Schoehn, Rob W.H. Ruigrok, Allison Ballandras-Colas, Thibaut Crépin. Nucleic Acids Research 2024 Dec 14:gkae1211. doi : 10.1093/nar/gkae1211.

Contact : Thibaut Crepin (IBS/Viral Replication Machines Group)