The sweet science: Viruses switch grip to gain upper hand

Below is some information I cut and pasted from a recent post at the University of Florida News.

Viruses — "those bits of occasionally harmful genetic material enclosed in shells of protein and fat — crave carbs. Except viruses aren’t seeking a taste treat. They want to latch onto the carbohydrates that protrude from the surface of our cells and mount an invasion.

By changing which carbohydrates they attach to, viruses are able to infect cells more efficiently — a finding that may prove valuable to scientists seeking ways to fight cancer or brain diseases, say University of Florida researchers writing in the current Journal of Biological Chemistry. The discovery also helps explain how flu and other viruses are able to stay a step ahead of our body’s own versatile immune system.

Working with the Consortium for Functional Glycomics, an international team of more than 230 scientists under the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, UF researchers became the first to use a new technique called a glycan array to study how a whole, intact virus interacts with carbohydrates."

Hmmm... Can you say Glyconutrients?

Read the article...