Cornell scientists fight back against Hendra and Nipah viruses

The world may be just a little safer today than yesterday. Enterprising scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City say they have found a way to prevent the deadly zoonotic Hendra and Nipah viruses from infecting human cells. This is good news because, ever since these viruses were identified, public health officials have worried that they might be effective weapons of terror. Indeed, they are so dangerous that they can only be studied under the secure condition that obtain in Level 3 and 4 bioweapons laboratories.

The Hendra and Nipah viruses — which spread from their natural resevoir in fruit bats to larger animals including pigs, horses, and humans — are believed to be transmitted through close contact with an infected animal or by breathing in the microscopic pathogens. Infection from the two related viruses leads to fatal encephalitis, and so far no cures exist. The second best thing, therefore, is to devise a way to prevent infection in the first place.

The Cornell researchers believe they have discovered such a method. Tweaking a peptide (protein) related to a third pathogen, the parainfluenza virus, makes its impossible for a critical receptor-binding molecule on the virus to bind to the cell. “Surprisingly, this peptide from the parainfluenza virus turned out to be even more effective at inhibiting Hendra virus fusion than peptides derived from the Hendra virus itself,” Dr. Anne Moscona says. “It also appears to do much the same thing with the Nipah virus, inhibiting fusion there, too.”

The research was supported by a Public Health Service grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s NorthEast Center of Excellence for Bio-defense and Emerging Infections Disease Research. Interested readers may read a detailed account in this month’s issue of the Journal of Virology.

-read more in this university news release