Virus entry: molecular mechanisms and biomedical applications.

Nat Rev Microbiol

Human Immunovirology and Computational Biology Group, Laboratory of Experimental & Computational Biology, Centre for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute at Frederick, Frederick, Maryland 21702-1201, USA.

Published: February 2004

Viruses have evolved to enter cells from all three domains of life--Bacteria, Archaea and Eukaryotes. Of more than 3,600 known viruses, hundreds can infect human cells and most of those are associated with disease. To gain access to the cell interior, animal viruses attach to host-cell receptors. Advances in our understanding of how viral entry proteins interact with their host-cell receptors and undergo conformational changes that lead to entry offer unprecedented opportunities for the development of novel therapeutics and vaccines.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7097642PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro817DOI Listing

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