Swine Flu protein - Neuraminidase

The Developed nations have recently been under threat of Swine Flu which is caused by virus H1N1. Various sequencing projects were triggered as per sensitivity of the problem. NCBI provides a collated form of sequence data from various labs. An article which appeared in "Medical news today" highlights the fast paced breakthroughs that can be achieved using bioinformtics. Here is an excerpt from the article :

In the Biology Direct journal's May 20th issue, Sebastian Maurer-Stroh, Ph.D., and his team of scientists at the Bioinformatics Institute (BII), one of the research institutes at Singapore's Biopolis, also demonstrated the use of a computational 3-dimensional (3D) structural model of the protein, neuraminidase.

"Because we were working as a team, driven by the common goal to understand potential risks from this new virus, our group at BII was able to successfully complete this difficult analysis within such a short time," said Dr. Maurer-Stroh, BII principal investigator and first author of the paper.

BII's interactive 3D model is available at the following link: http://mendel.bii.a-star.edu.sg/SEQUENCES/H1N1/

With the 3D model, Dr. Maurer-Stroh and his team were able to map the regions of the protein that have mutated and determine whether drugs and vaccines that target specific areas of the protein were effective.

Among their findings:

* neuraminidase structure of the 2009 H1N1 influenza A virus has undergone extensive surface mutations compared to closely related strains such as the H5N1 avian flu virus or other H1N1 strains including the 1918 Spanish flu;

* neuraminidase of the 2009 H1N1 influenza A virus strain is more similar to the H5N1 avian flu than to the historic 1918 H1N1 strain (Spanish flu);

* current mutations of the virus have rendered previous flu vaccinations directed against neuraminidase less effective; and

* commercial drugs, namely Tamiflu® and Relenza®, are still effective in treating the current H1N1 virus.

With the Biology Direct journal paper, the Singapore scientists have become the first to demonstrate how bioinformatics and computational biology can contribute towards managing the H1N1 influenza A virus.