2STOP_TBE · Structural Openings to Understand and Prevent Tick Borne Encephalitis

Structural Openings to Understand and Prevent Tick Borne Encephalitis

Infectious diseases have been accompanying mankind throughout its whole history. We know of many devastating epidemics caused by pathogenic bacteria of viruses. But we but also know of glorious successes in fighting and preventing such epidemics that become possible as we learn more about the microbes that cause diseases. One of the diseases threatening humans is tick borne encephalitis (TBE). As comes from its name, TBE is an inflammatory disease of central nervous system that is spread by ticks. This severe, often debilitating or even fatal disease is caused by tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV). Although there is a vaccine to prevent TBE, only a small portion of people is protected, and there is no antiviral treatment to offer to those who will get ill. Europe is at risk, as areas where TBEV is found localise to many European countries. In addition, due to the global warming, ticks transmitting the virus expand their habitats and bring the disease to new areas. During the last three decades, the number of TBE cases has increased over four times and is likely to increase more. There is an unmet need for antivirals against TBEV, but their development was for long time hampered by the our very limited knowledge about this virus. Developing antivirals is a challenging task. There are several strategies to tackle it, but none of them can be successful without detailed understanding about the virus we are targeting. We need to know the fine details about how the virus is built and how viral proteins function. We need to know how viruses mutate and identify which parts of the virus are likely to change over time, and which are not. We need to know which proteins of our bodies are important for the virus to grow, and which will inhibit it. The goal of the project 2STOP_TBE was to provide important knowledge about TBEV that can be used for discovery of therapeutic measures against this virus. We sought to provide the details about the architecture of TBEV, about the important changes of viral structure happening the life cycle, describe how viral proteins function and mutate, and identify which cellular proteins are important for the virus. Such knowledge will allow to target the virus, viral proteins or even host proteins supporting development of antivirals.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union