Rapidly evolving viruses and other pathogens can have an immense impact on human evolution as natural selection acts to increase the prevalence of genes providing resistance to disease. In their new paper, Andersen et al, provide evidence for two genes - IL21 and LARGE - as being targets of natural selection caused by Lassa virus.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have determined the atomic structure of a protein that the Lassa fever virus uses to make copies of itself within infected cells. The structural data reveal an unexpected molecular crevice where the viral protein grips the viral genes, making this crevice a target for potential antiviral drugs.
Research conducted by scientists from Tulane University and Kenema Government Hospital is reshaping our understanding of acute Lassa Fever. Analyses conducted on survivors of Lassa Fever suggests that only Lassa virus viremia assessed by antigen-capture immunoassay, nucleic acid detection or virus isolation should be used to diagnose acute Lassa virus infection in West Africans.
Consortium researchers report on the first comprehensive rapid diagnosis and real time characterization of an acute case of hemorrhagic Lassa Fever in a third trimester pregnant Sierra Leonean woman who survived the illness despite fetal demise.
The arenaviral nucleoprotein NP has been implicated in suppression of the host innate immune system, but the mechanism by which this occurs has remained elusive. In their paper published in the January 24th edition of PNAS, Dr. Ollmann-Saphire and her colleagues present the crystal structure at 1.5 Å of the immunosuppressive C-terminal portion of Lassa virus NP and illustrate that, unexpectedly, its 3D fold closely mimics that of the DEDDh family of exonucleases.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded a five-year contract totaling $15,254,919 to Tulane University for its ongoing efforts to treat and prevent Lassa fever, an often deadly viral disease that threatens hundreds of thousands of people annually in West Africa and is classified as a potential bioterrorism threat.
While fossils can provide interesting clues to human history, they can not reveal which pieces of human DNA have been favored by evolution because they present beneficial traits. This information can only be revealed through genetic studies of modern humans and related species.
