The Epstein-Barr virus is one of the most widespread human viruses. Part of the herpesvirus family, it causes glandular fever (infectious mononucleosis), cancer and autoimmune diseases. At present, there is no treatment for infections caused by this virus. In work recently published in Nature Communications, scientists from the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and the Molecular Biology Institute of Barcelona (IBMB-CSIC) in Spain used cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to reveal the structure of a key protein, known as a portal, in the Epstein-Barr virus. Similarities between herpesviruses and tailed bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) suggest that these two types of organism may be related. In a second paper published in the same journal, the team solved the structure of the portal protein in bacteriophage T7, using a combination of cryo-EM and X-ray crystallography. These results allowed them to infer how the Epstein-Barr virus portal works and may help in the development of a treatment for this virus.
Click here for original story, Cryo-electron microscopy opens a door to fight Epstein-Barr
Source: Phys.org