Zika virus structural biology and progress in vaccine development.

Zika virus structural biology and progress in vaccine development. Biotechnol Adv. 2017 Sep 12;: Authors: Lin HH, Yip BS, Huang LM, Wu SC Abstract The growing number of zika virus (ZIKV) infections plus a 20-fold increase in neonatal microcephaly in newborns in Brazil have raised alarms in many countries regarding the threat to pregnant women. Instances of microcephaly and central nervous system malformations continue to increase in ZIKV outbreak regions. ZIKV is a small enveloped positive-strand RNA virus belonging to the Flavivirus genus of the Flaviviridae family. High-resolution ZIKV structures recently identified by cryo-electron microscopy indicate that the overall ZIKV structure is similar to those of other flaviviruses. With its compact surface, ZIKV is more thermally stable than the dengue virus (DENV). ZIKV E proteins have a characteristic "herringbone" structure with a single glycosylation site. The ZIKV E protein, the major protein involved in receptor binding and fusion, is formed as a head-to-tail dimer on the surfaces of viral particles. The E monomer consists of three distinct domains: DI, DII, and DIII. The finger-like DII contains a fusion loop (FL) that is inserted into the host cell endosomal membrane during pH-dependent conformational changes that drive fusion. Quaternary E:E dimer epitopes located at the interaction site of prM and E dimers can be further divided into two dimer epitopes. To date, more than 50 ZI...
Source: Biotechnology Advances - Category: Biotechnology Authors: Tags: Biotechnol Adv Source Type: research