Grant: Project Grant

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is the leading cause of hospitalisation of infants in North America and the second leading cause of death of children worldwide. RSV causes infection of the lungs leading to flu-like symptoms and pneumonia. Despite the severity of this particular infection there is no vaccine available and the only medication against RSV is a very expensive drug called palivizumab, that can only be used to prevent infection. This means that when a patient is suffering from RSV infection there aren't any specific treatments available to treat the infection itself. In summary, we need to learn more about RSV infection so that we can develop new drugs to treat it. We are researching the steps that RSV takes to enter and infect lung cells. In order for infection to happen the virus must first cross the outer membrane that surrounds the cell, which is called virus entry. We are studying the entry stage of the virus replication cycle so that we can develop the basis of new drugs that block RSV infection from happening. The biggest hurdle with developing drugs against RSV entry into cells is that very little is known about this phase of the RSV replication cycle. Firstly, viruses must bind receptors. Virus receptors are molecules made by the cell to which a virus binds in order to enter the cell. Our group shed new light on RSV entry by discovering a cellular entry receptor for RSV (2011) and we have just recently discovered a new receptor for RSV. The purpose of our studies is to understand the RSV-receptor interaction so that we can develop drugs that block these interactions. In summary, we are discovering the cellular factors that RSV uses to infect cells as the basis of new drugs to block RSV infection.