Kiwi scientists have used high-resolution images to reveal how an anti-cancer virus interacts with tumour cells, increasing its potential to save lives.
Seneca Valley Virus (SVV), a newly discovered virus which infects cancer cells but not normal tissue, has become a focus of Dr Mihnea Bostina's OMNI Electron Microscopy unit at the University of Otago.
He hoped the results of a just-published study might help develop the virus for clinical use against cancer.
Working with researchers from Japan's Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, the group used cryo-electron microscopy to capture thousands of images of the virus bound to its receptor, using them to reconstruct a high resolution structure of the complex.
The structure demonstrated how SVV discriminated between its preferred receptor - cancer cells - and other similar proteins, such as healthy tissue.