2024-04-11 23:05:03
(ANSA) – PADUA, APR 10 – A study published in Nature has identified the cell entry receptor of one of the most guarded viruses, that of the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, lethal in up to 40% of cases and which the WHO considers one of the infectious diseases of priority importance and with pandemic potential.
This was made known by Cristiano Salata, professor of Microbiology and Virology at the Department of Molecular Medicine of the University of Padua, included in the network of the Inf-Act research program, a project of the Ministry of University and Research on the topic of emerging infectious diseases, financed under the Pnrr with 114.5 million euros.
“The discovery – explains Salata – has the potential to change the strategies to combat this hemorrhagic fever: by knowing the way in which the virus interacts with proteins to enter the cell, we will be able to discover how to deactivate the mechanism. In practice we now know the lock’ and the ‘key’ that the virus uses to infect cells. It was the result of an important international collaboration, in which we contributed by allowing the identification of the receptor, a receptor which was then shown to work both with model viruses laboratory and with viruses isolated from patients, and with those isolated from ticks”.
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever is the second most common vector-borne hemorrhagic fever after dengue. It is a viral pathology transmitted by ticks of the Hyalomma genus, which infest both mammals and wild birds, as well as livestock. In Europe, human infections have been recorded in Spain and the Balkans, while Turkey is among the main epicenters of the disease.
“In Italy – recalls Salata – no cases of contagion on humans have yet been recorded, but it is considered a country at high risk of introducing the disease. Although at the moment no infected ticks have been found, in Basilicata some cattle have been identified they had antibodies against the virus, suggesting circulation of the virus between animals.
This pushed us to join forces between various bodies belonging to Inf-Act for a more meticulous search for the virus in the Italian territory”.
The monitoring in Basilicata is conducted between the Salata group of the University of Padua and that of Domenico Otranto, professor of parasitic animal diseases at the University of Bari. Furthermore, with the support of the network of zooprophylactic institutes, the activity has been extended monitoring also in the North-East. (HANDLE).
2024-04-11 23:05:03