J. Reguera’s team guest: Pablo Guardado Calvo, Institut Pasteur, Paris – “Mechanisms of fusion and neutralization of hantaviruses”

Abstract

Hantaviruses are a family of airborne pathogenic viruses that can cause severe human diseases. So far, no treatment is available, and patients only receive supportive care to ease their symptoms. Hantaviruses infect host cells by binding to a specific receptor on the cell surface and subsequently fusing their membrane with the endosomal one at acidic pH. I will show the unusual molecular mechanisms that hantaviruses use to regulate viral fusion and the neutralization mechanism of ADI-42898, the only antibody described to date with the ability to neutralize all pathogenic hantaviruses. In addition, I will show the strategy we have developed to enhance further the activity of this antibody against the new world hantavirus.