NEW YORK: The scientists at Leeds and York have cracked the code that is utilized by major viruses (including the common cold and polio) to spread the infection inside the body. The code, they claim, initiates the virus assembly and its functioning within the body. Viruses, once inside the body, work by taking over the replication mechanism of a cell and using it to replicate itself, destroying the host cell and moving on to another. By disrupting and scrambling the code, it is possible to shut down the spreading of the virus.
Professor Peter Stockley of the University of Leeds, who lead the study, said, “Now, for this whole class of viruses, we have found the ‘Enigma machine’–the coding system that was hiding these signals from us. We have shown that not only can we read these messages but we can jam them and stop the virus’ deployment.”
It was in the year 2012 that the researchers at the Leeds University first observed the working of a single-stranded RNA virus. Mathematicians from the University of York, collaborating with the Leeds researchers, then structured algorithms to crack the code governing the process.
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The final study paper was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
“We have understood for decades that the RNA carries the genetic messages that create viral proteins, but we didn’t know that, hidden within the stream of letters we use to denote the genetic information, is a second code governing virus assembly. It is like finding a secret message within an ordinary news report and then being able to crack the whole coding system behind it”, said Dr. Roman Tuma, Reader in Biophysics at the Leeds University.
Professor Reidun Twarock, of the University of York’s Department of Mathematics, said: “We found multiple dispersed patterns working together in an incredibly intricate mechanism and we were eventually able to unpick those messages. We have now proved that those computer models work in real viral messages.”
All the research seems to be helping to create a mega-boom, a radical change, in the field of medicine.
