Leadership Instincts: Disappearance of Women researchers in Authorship during Pandemic  |  Technology Inceptions: MIT developed a New Successor for Mini Cheetah Robot  |  Science Innovations: IISc team develops novel computational model to predict ‘change blindness’  |  Science Innovations: Immune System Responds Better to Vaccination in Morning Hours  |  Teacher Insights: Training in Childhood Education, New Pedagogy Enabled Innovation in Teaching  |  International Policy: UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education 2021  |  Leadership Instincts: UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education 2021  |  Health Monitor: Intensive therapy better for Cerebral Palsy  |  Parent Interventions: Intensive therapy better for Cerebral Palsy  |  Science Innovations: Intensive therapy better for Cerebral Palsy  |  International Edu News: TutorComp- a new platform for online tutoring in UAE.  |  Higher Studies: IIT Hyderabad Announces 3 New Industry-Oriented BTech Programmes  |  Leadership Instincts: Innovation Hub of IIT Hyderabad and ARAI sign MoU for India Specific AV Tech  |  International Edu News: Nobel Peace Prize Laureates of 20th Century  |  International Edu News: Nobel Peace Prize 2021 for Safeguarding Freedom of Expression  |  
July 08, 2019 Monday 11:47:38 AM IST

Finding on viruses opens drug vistas

Science Innovations

A new study led by researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Swansea University Medical School furthers our knowledge of viruses - in the sea and on land - and their potential to cause life-threatening illnesses. Their findings, which examine newly-identified genes carried by mysterious ‘giant’ viruses, could represent potential new drug targets for giant viruses linked to human diseases.

An international team of researchers searched more than 8,000 virus genomes and found that many newly-discovered giant viruses contain multiple genes for a type of enzyme called cytochrome P450. P450 enzymes are common in animals, plants and bacteria, but finding them in new viruses is unexpected. In animals, P450 enzymes metabolize drugs, make steroid hormones, and defend against pollutants.Finding P450 genes and enzymes in diverse viruses may help in understanding the origin of the giant viruses themselves.Increasingly, giant viruses are being found in the oceans.


Comments
 

RECOMMENDED NEWS

Science Innovations
21-10-2021
IISc team develops novel computational...
Science Innovations
A research group at the Centre for Neuroscience and the Department of Computer Science and Automation, Indian Institute of Science (IISc)  have developed a nov...
Science Innovations
20-10-2021
Immune System Responds Better to Vacci...
Science Innovations
By deciphering the cell migration mechanisms underlying the immune response of human beings, scientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in Switzerland, a...
18-10-2021
Intensive therapy better for Cerebral ...
Science Innovations
According to a new study by researchers at Virginia Tech's Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, UVA Children's, The Ohio State University, and Nationwide Children's Hospital, it is found that children with cerebral palsy can gain greater use of an impaired arm and hand with larger doses of Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT) - without increasing stress for parents.Higher doses of CIMT therapy - 20 three-hour sessions over four weeks - yield significant and last...
12-10-2021
Explaining Brown Dwarfs
Science Innovations
An international team, led by scientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Planets, in collaboration with the University of Bern, has identified five objects that have masses near the border separating stars and brown dwarfs. Brown dwarfs are astronomical objects with masses between those of planets and stars. The question of where exactly the limits of their mass lie remains a matter of debate. So this findin...
14-09-2021
Stanford University Develops Algorithm...
Science Innovations
Research scholars at Stanford University have used new machine learning techniques to determine the structure of molecules. Determining the 3D shapes of biological molecules is one of the hardest problems in modern biology and medical discovery. Companies and research institutions often spend millions of dollars to determine a molecular structure – and even such massive efforts are frequently unsuccessful. The new algorithm predicts accurate molecular structures and, in doi...
09-09-2021
New Therapeutic Approach that Puts a '...
Science Innovations
Even though vaccines may be steering the world toward a post-pandemic normal, a constantly mutating SARS-CoV-2 necessitates the development of effective drugs. In a new study published in Nature Microbiology, Weizmann Institute of Science researchers, together with collaborators from the Pasteur Institute, France, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA, offer a novel therapeutic approach to combating the notorious virus. Rather than targeting the viral protein respo...