Chinese scientists on Friday unravelled the three dimensional structure of the African swine fever virus, laying a solid foundation for developing effective and safe vaccines against the disease.
The research, jointly conducted by scientists at the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Harbin Veterinary Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), was published in the latest issue of academic journal Science.
The Director of CAAS, Bu Zhigao, said China was facing a great challenge in controlling the spread of African swine fever.
He added that it had become imperative and a matter of urgency to develop a more powerful technology tool including a vaccine to prevent the disease.
“The new breakthrough in unveiling the fine structure of the virus is important fundamental research, which will provide clues to explore fundamental mechanisms for infection, pathogenicity and immunology of African swine fever, and vaccine development,’’ Zhigao said.
Scientists had successfully isolated the epidemic strain of the African swine fever virus, spreading in China.
It however took the research team four months to collect over 100 TB of high-quality data.
The research showed the virus had a unique structure of five layers: the outer membrane, capsid, double-layer inner membrane, core shell and genome.
It contains more than 30,000 protein subunits, forming a spherical particle with a diameter of about 260 nanometres.
The study also identified structural proteins of the virus, revealing potential protective antigens and key information on the epitope, the part of an antigen molecule to which an antibody attaches itself.
The research showed complex arrangement and interaction mode of structural proteins and proposed possible assembly mechanism of virus, providing an important clue as to how it invades host cells and evades and antagonizes the host antiviral immunity.
African swine fever is believed to infect only pigs. No humans or other species are known to have been infected.
China reported its first case of the disease in Aug. 2018, in the North-Eastern province of Liaoning. Later outbreaks were reported in other provincial regions.
According to Zhigao, China has the largest pig-producing quantity in the world, and it is an arduous task to control the African swine fever.
China had so far conducted lab research on the vaccine against the disease, but the vaccines under development lacked perfection.
He noted that previous developments of the vaccines used traditional methods, lacking clear theoretical guidance.
The recent research might provide help for new designs of the vaccines.
