A Purdue University-led research team has figured out how to disable a part of the SARS virus responsible for hiding it from the immune system; a critical step in developing a vaccine against the deadly disease.
The findings also have potential applications in the creation of vaccines against other coronaviruses, including MERS, said Andrew Mesecar, who led the research.
“This is a first step toward creating a weakened and safe virus for use in an attenuated live vaccine,” said Mesecar, Purdue’s Walther Professor of Cancer Structural Biology and professor of biological sciences and chemistry. “This also could serve as a molecular roadmap for performing similar studies on other coronaviruses, like MERS, because this enzyme appears to be common to all viruses within this family.”
