Positively charged residues in the EV71 VP1 protein are essential for infectious particle production, revealing a potential target for antiviral drug discovery.
Potential EV71 antiviral targets suggested in animal models; hypothesis-generating and requires human validation before any clinical consideration.
Infection with EV71 is more often associated with neurological complications in children and is responsible for the majority of fatalities. No licensed vaccines or antiviral therapies are currently available for the prevention or treatment of EV71 infection. Understanding the determinants of virion assembly and entry will facilitate vaccine development and drug discovery. Here, we identified 23 out of 27 positively charged residues in VP1 which impaired or blocked the production of infectious particles. The defect could be rescued by second-site mutations within the VP1 protein. Our findings highlight the importance of positively charged residues in VP1 during infectious particle production and reveal a potential strategy for blocking EV71 infections by inhibiting intra- or intermolecular interactions of the VP1 protein.
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Yuan et al. (2015) studied this question.
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