Global Security Newswire

Scientists conducting research at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified the means by which smallpox causes death, Science Daily reported in December (see GSN, Nov. 18, 2009).

Smallpox has been eliminated in nature but is still considered a possible bioterrorism agent.

The research, described in the FASEB Journal, addresses a major question in the study of the smallpox virus. It could lead to the creation of new antiviral countermeasures against the disease.

Researchers found that cells infected with the variola virus, which causes smallpox, and with the similar monkeypox virus created a protein that restricted the human interferon molecules that are supposed to prevent viruses from reproducing.

"These studies demonstrate the production of an interferon binding protein by variola virus and monkeypox virus, and point at this viral anti-interferon protein as a target to develop new therapeutics and protect people from smallpox and related viruses," according to Spanish researcher Antonio Alcami. "A better understanding of how variola virus, one of the most virulent viruses known to humans, evades host defenses will help up to understand the molecular mechanisms that cause disease in other viral infections."

Added FASEB Journal Editor-in-Chief Gerald Weissmann: "The re-emergence of pox viruses has potentially devastating consequences for people worldwide, as increasing numbers of people lack immunity to smallpox. Understanding exactly how pox viruses disrupt our immune systems can help us develop defenses against natural and terror-borne pox viruses" (Science Daily, Dec. 23, 2009).