Félix Rey, Head of the Structural Virology Laboratory at the Institut Pasteur in Paris and his co-workers from the Institut Pasteur and the French National Centre for Scientific Research, in collaboration with Imperial College London and the University of Vienna, Austria, have identified antibodies that can efficiently neutralize both the dengue virus and the Zika virus. The description of the binding site for these antibodies on the viral envelope, identical for both viruses, could lead to the development of a universal vaccine that offers simultaneous protection against dengue and Zika virus disease. These results were published in the journal Nature on June 23, 2016.
3D structure of the Zika virus envelope protein (red, yellow and blue) in complex with the neutralizing antibody (in green and white). © Institut Pasteur
Barba-Spaeth G, Dejnirattisai W, Rouvinski A, Vaney MC, Medits I, Sharma A, Simon-Lorière E, Sakuntabhai A, Cao-Lormeau VM, Haouz A, England P, Stiasny K, Mongkolsapaya J, Heinz FX, Screaton GR, Rey FA Nature (2016) doi:10.1038/nature18938 Read the full story on the Institut Pasteur website.