image: A diagram of the Hendra virus. The blue lollipop structure is the G protein that the virus uses to attach to and infect cells. A genetically engineered version of the G protein was made in the laboratory and then used to isolate human antibody fragments from a library of genetically engineered human antibody fragments. Like a needle in a haystack, one particular human antibody (m102.4) described in this study was found and then converted to a whole antibody (IgG1) and when it is used as a therapy it can attack and block the Hendra virus from infecting cells. This image relates to a paper that appeared in the Oct. 19, 2011, issue of Science Translational Medicine, published by AAAS. The paper, by Dr. K.N. Bossart of Boston University School of Medicine in Boston, Mass., and colleagues, was titled, "A Neutralizing Human Monoclonal Antibody Protects African Green Monkeys from Hendra Virus Challenge." view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Dr. Christopher Broder