Breakthrough in fight on tick-borne CCHF virus is latest use of new strategy against diseases

Using the same approach they recently used to create effective vaccine candidates against COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), scientists are tackling another virus: the tick-borne Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF). It causes death in up to 40% of cases, and the World Health Organization identified the disease as one of its top priorities for research and development. The results are publsihed in the journal Science. Using what scientists refer to as structural virology, a research consortium called Prometheus reconstructed the first 3D atomic-scale maps, or structures, of an infection-causing part of the virus that allows it to infect host cells. The team also determined how two neutralizing antibodies, fished from recovered patients, disrupt the virus’s ability to infect a cell, which together with the structural information, offers insights for developing therapeutics against the virus. The research echoes a key approach that scientists, including The University of Texas at Austin’s Jason McLellan, have...