Cracking “virus code” could help fight cancer

Virus experts from Cardiff University’s School of Medicine have uncovered, for the first time, how a virus known as Adenovirus type 26 (Ad26), which has been used effectively in a tamed form as a vaccine, can infect human cells. Ad26 is a virus of great interest to the scientific and medical community. Ad26 is both a human pathogen causing severe respiratory distress, and potentially death in vulnerable patients, and a key component in new vaccines to fight deadly diseases. An Ad26 based vaccine is currently being deployed in Africa to fight the Ebola epidemic. However, until now, science has yet to understand how this virus works inside the human body, and what about it makes it such a good vaccine. The research, published in the journal Science Advances, provides the first detailed analysis of the structure of the virus in complex with its newly discovered receptor. “Our research finds that Ad26 uses a type...