Study identifies role Nipah, Hendra virus protein plays in disease spread

A research team has uncovered how W protein — a viral protein that factors into both Nipah and Hendra virus infections — targets critical cell functions, leading to suppression of immune responses and spreading of these viruses.

W protein binds to proteins in the host cells and allows for disabling of the defenses that would otherwise halt infection and viral growth. Nipah and Hendra viruses, both of which come from fruit bats, are highly lethal in humans.

“Right now, for humans, we lack any licensed vaccines or approved drugs to treat the infections,” said Christopher Basler, senior author of the study, professor in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences and director of the Center for Microbial Pathogenesis at Georgia State University. “We need vaccines, we need treatments, and we also need to better understand what makes the viruses so deadly.”

Identifying the function of the W protein is the first step on that path, the authors claim. To engage with the protein, the research team engineered a Nipah virus that could not produce the W protein and infected animals with it. The virus was unable to attack in the same way or level of effectiveness.

“One of the things that’s interesting about the W protein being in the nucleus of the cell is that most of the other components of the virus remain in the cytoplasm of the cell throughout the replication cycle,” Basler said. “We think that the W protein goes to the nucleus to do something, to somehow specifically target innate immune responses.”