The two strategies that mutant measles viruses use to infect the brain (IMAGE)
Caption
Mutation in the F protein is key for the measles virus to fuse and infect neurons. Two primary strategies exist for such infection. Initially, fusion activity of a mutant F protein is suppressed due to interference from the normal F proteins (black box). That interference is overcome by accumulation of mutations and increased fusogenecity (orange box). In another case, a different mutation in the F protein acts oppositely and reduces fusion activity, but conversely cooperates with normal F proteins that increase the fusion activity (blue box). Thus, even mutant F proteins that appear to be unable to infect neurons can still infect the brain.
Credit
Kyushu University/Hidetaka Harada/Yuta Shirogane
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