A CHANCE discovery' by. virologists
of Baylor college of, medicine in
Houston, Texas, could stop life-threatening diarrhoea in children, dead in
tracks.
Led by Mary Estes, the virologists
were actually investigating the parts
of the virus when they stumbled on
to how the viral particles infect human cells. "We found out how
the virus infects the cell ... And we were
not even looking for what we found",
said Estes.
Laboratory tests in mice revealed
a protein NSPewhich triggered
diarrhoea in mice. Significantly, only
those mice which were a few
days old fell prey to the disease. The age
component could thus help in the
making of a vaccine which could overwhelm the -virus causing the infection in
infants.
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