Purdue research hints that birds could spread Ebola virus
Ebola shares a closer relationship with several bird viruses than was previously thought, bolstering the case for a common ancestor and hinting that birds might carry the deadly virus, a Purdue University research team reports.
David Sanders and his research group have discovered that the outer protein shell of Ebola has a biochemical structure similar to several retroviruses carried by birds. As scientists had known previously of genetic similarity among the viruses, this discovery makes a common evolutionary origin even more likely. It also suggests that Ebola could be spread to human populations by birds as well.
"We knew these viruses were inwardly similar, and now we see their outer similarity as well," said Sanders, associate professor of biological sciences in Purdues School of Science. "While bird transmission of Ebola is by no means certain, the resemblance among all these viruses should encourage health officials to be on guard for it."
The research appears in Sundays (12/15) Journal of Virology. Two contributors to the groups research are Scott Jeffers, a graduate student in Sanders laboratory, and Anthony Sanchez, an Ebola virus expert at the Centers for Disease Control.
Since its discovery in 1976, Ebola has been responsible for hundreds of deaths in central Africa. Though the source of the virus in nature remains unknown, both humans and monkeys appear susceptible. Death rates of between 50 percent and 90 percent are common during outbreaks.
"Ebola is one of the viruses with which the U.S. agencies in charge of biodefense are most concerned," Sanders said. "Identification of its natural hosts should be a priority."
This research was sponsored by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the Purdue Research Foundation.
Writer: Chad Boutin, (765) 494-2081, email@example.com
Source: David A. Sanders, (765) 494-6453, firstname.lastname@example.org
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; email@example.com
Purdue works to transform Ebola virus from killer to healer
Chad Boutin | Purdue News
The most recent press releases about innovation >>>
Die letzten 5 Focus-News des innovations-reports im Überblick:
Strong light-matter coupling in these semiconducting tubes may hold the key to electrically pumped lasers
Light-matter quasi-particles can be generated electrically in semiconducting carbon nanotubes. Material scientists and physicists from Heidelberg University...
Fraunhofer IPA has developed a proximity sensor made from silicone and carbon nanotubes (CNT) which detects objects and determines their position. The materials and printing process used mean that the sensor is extremely flexible, economical and can be used for large surfaces. Industry and research partners can use and further develop this innovation straight away.
At first glance, the proximity sensor appears to be nothing special: a thin, elastic layer of silicone onto which black square surfaces are printed, but these...
3-D shape acquisition using water displacement as the shape sensor for the reconstruction of complex objects
A global team of computer scientists and engineers have developed an innovative technique that more completely reconstructs challenging 3D objects. An ancient...
Physicists have developed a new technique that uses electrical voltages to control the electron spin on a chip. The newly-developed method provides protection from spin decay, meaning that the contained information can be maintained and transmitted over comparatively large distances, as has been demonstrated by a team from the University of Basel’s Department of Physics and the Swiss Nanoscience Institute. The results have been published in Physical Review X.
For several years, researchers have been trying to use the spin of an electron to store and transmit information. The spin of each electron is always coupled...
What is the mass of a proton? Scientists from Germany and Japan successfully did an important step towards the most exact knowledge of this fundamental constant. By means of precision measurements on a single proton, they could improve the precision by a factor of three and also correct the existing value.
To determine the mass of a single proton still more accurate – a group of physicists led by Klaus Blaum and Sven Sturm of the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear...