Luminous proteins offer new method to discover viral infection

Researchers at Umeå University have developed a new method to directly follow viral infections in living organisms. This method can make infected cells produce fluorescent proteins, which means that they light up and become easier to identify. The method, which is described in the journal Scientific Reports, also makes it possible to activate other functions in infected cells, for instance to enhance the immune system. “When a virus multiplies, it produces so-called proteases, which is a type of enzyme needed for the virus to cleave viral proteins into big enough chunks necessary to build new virus particles,” says Dan Hultmark, researcher at the Department of Molecular Biology and one of the researchers behind the study. “Using genetic tricks, we are encouraging the virus enzyme into activating other functions in the cell instead.” With the use of this method, described in an article published in Scientific Reports, it is possible to make virus-infected...