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Lifecycle of SARS-CoV-2

What happens if a SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus enters your lung? This molecular animation visualises how the virus particle can take over the host cell and turns it into a virus factory. Eventually, the host cell produces so many viral particles that it dies and releases numerous new virus particles. >>> Visit this page >>>

Opening a Gate to Human Health

by Alice Clark (PDBe)
In the 1970s, an exciting discovery of a family of medicines was made by the Japanese scientist Satoshi Ōmura. One of these molecules, ivermectin, is shown in this artwork bound in the ligand binding pocket of the Farnesoid X receptor, a protein which helps regulate cholesterol in humans. This structure showed that ivermectin induced transcriptional activity of FXR and could be used to regulate metabolism.

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Interconversion of the specificities of human lysosomal enzymes associated with Fabry and Schindler diseases.

IB Tomasic, MC Metcalf, AI Guce, NE Clark, SC Garman. J. Biol. Chem. 2010 doi: 10.1074/jbc.M110.118588
The human lysosomal enzymes α-galactosidase and α-N-acetylgalactosaminidase share 46% amino acid sequence identity and have similar folds. Using a rational protein engineering approach, we interconverted the enzymatic specificity of α-GAL and α-NAGAL. The engineered α-GAL retains the antigenicity but has acquired the enzymatic specificity of α-NAGAL. Conversely, the engineered α-NAGAL retains the antigenicity but has acquired the enzymatic specificity of the α-GAL enzyme. Comparison of the crystal structures of the designed enzyme to the wild-type enzymes shows that active sites superimpose well, indicating success of the rational design. The designed enzymes might be useful as non-immunogenic alternatives in enzyme replacement therapy for treatment of lysosomal storage disorders such as Fabry disease.

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Polio is still here!
Polio vaccines have been available since the 1950s, but the challenges of vaccination in remote areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan have prevented worldwide eradication. In 2022, polio was found circulating in parts of New York State, USA. The polio virus has a small RNA genome enclosed in an icosahedral capsid composed of several proteins, shown cut in half. The structures of virus capsids can be explored using free FirstGlance in Jmol.

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