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Adenovirus is a common virus that causes infectious diseases of the respiratory tract, eyes and gastrointestinal tract in humans and animals. Researchers at Umeå University work together with the research groups from Germany, the UK and Hungary, to study molecular mechanisms of infection to understand how adenovirus causes disease. They have discovered a new type of mechanism used by a rare adenovirus type to attack cells.
Human Adenovirus type 52 (HAdV-52) is one of the few adenoviruses that has two different types of fiber proteins on its surface, which are ‘used’ by the virus for the attachment to target cells. They discoverd that fiber binds to an unusual type of carbohydrate-based receptor, polysialic acid-a long chain of repeated sialic acids. HAdV-52 binds to polysialic acid on target cells and leads to infection. The interaction between the short fiber and polysialic acid has been mapped at the atomic level.
Polysialic acid is overexpressed on cancer cells in the brain and lungs, Adenovirus and other viruses have been considered suitable for the treatment of different types of cancer. Viruses can kill cancer cells, a virus infection in a tumor can activate the immune system against the cancer cells. Most adenoviruses tested so far have only one type of cell-binding fiber. HAdV-52 has two different fibers, one of which has a natural predilection for cancerous cells that express polysialic acid.
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