Collective measles virus mutations linked to fatal encephalitis

Researchers in Japan have uncovered the mechanism for how the measles virus (MeV) can cause subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, or SSPE, a rare but fatal neurological disorder that can occur several years after a measles infection. Although the normal form of the measles virus cannot infect the nervous system, the team found that viruses that persist in the body can develop mutations in a key protein that controls how they infect cells. The mutated proteins can interact with its normal form, making it capable of infecting the brain. The team, headed by Yuta Shirogane, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor at Kyushu University’s Faculty of Medical Sciences, hopes that the results will help scientists develop therapeutics for SSPE, as well as elucidate the evolutionary mechanisms common to viruses—such as novel coronaviruses, and herpesviruses—that have similar infection mechanisms to measles. Shirogane and colleagues reported their findings in Science Advances, in a paper titled “Collective fusion activity...