Mystery Solved: Scientists Now Know How Smallpox Kills

ScienceDaily — A team of researchers working in a high containment laboratory at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA, have solved a fundamental mystery about smallpox that has puzzled scientists long after the natural disease was eradicated by vaccination.: they know how it kills us. In a new research report appearing online in The FASEB Journal, researchers describe how the virus cripples immune systems by attacking molecules made by our bodies to block viral replication. This discovery fills a major gap in the scientific understanding of pox diseases and lays the foundation for the development of antiviral treatments, should smallpox or related viruses re-emerge through accident, viral evolution, or terrorist action. Read article

Ed’s Note – The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology publishes The FASEB Journal. Stanford University Libraries’ HighWire Press ® assists in the publication of FJ Online

Tags: disease / medicine, North America