A team of researchers led by Susan Hafenstein, PhD, Professor and CryoEM Director at The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota, recently published a paper entitled “Infectious parvovirus B19 circulates in the blood coated with active host protease inhibitors,” in the leading scientific journal Nature Communications. The paper reveals the first 3D structure of human parvovirus B19 (B19V) at the atomic level. B19V infections are on the rise in the United States, and these new insights offer vital perspectives for vaccine development, the improvement of intravenous immunoglobulin treatment, and the possibility for discovering additional solutions to treating and preventing B19V infection. B19V is a small virus that infects stem cells that can become red blood cells. Infection with B19V can cause a mild rash in children (known as erythema or “fifth disease”), but leads to more severe conditions in adults, including joint diseases like arthritis and transient aplastic crisis (TAC), when bone marrow stops producing red blood cells that can lead to severe anemia. In pregnant women, B19V also poses the risk for a condition that causes a buildup of fluid in a fetus’s or newborn’s body) or stillbirth due to severe fetal anemia. Vaccines to protect against B19V using virus-like particles (VLPs) are currently under development, and intravenous immunoglobulin treatment is used when needed. However, studies of infectious virions have been limited, and existing structures (3D maps) have remained at low resolution until Hafenstein’s study. “The findings in this paper were a structure-driven discovery. We began with a simple idea: to solve a higher-resolution structure of the authentic B19V. This led to unexpected observations—something on the viral capsid that we had never seen before,” said Research Assistant Professor Hyunwook Lee, PhD, who is listed as first author of the publication. “From there, all the new findings emerged.” The authors also included CryoEM Specialist Carol Bator and the project was in collaboration with the lab of Dr. Carlos Ros at the University of Bern, Switzerland. The post Institute Scientists publish paper revealing first atomic-resolution of parvovirus of humans appeared first on Austin Daily Herald.