In a breakthrough discovery, a team lead by Professor Daniel Watterson and Dr Ariel Isaacs at The University of Queensland (UQ) have found a powerful way to block two deadly viruses - Hendra and Nipah - for which no approved vaccine or treatment currently exists.
The secret weapon? A tiny antibody called a nanobody, found naturally in alpacas.
Working with scientists in Chile, the research team used immune cells from an alpaca named Pedro to isolate a nanobody named DS90. Unlike conventional antibodies, DS90 is just one-tenth the size, allowing it to slip into deep pockets on the virus surface and stop it from entering human cells.
Using cryo-electron microscopy, the team investigated how DS90 binds to the virus—something never seen before. Even better, when combined with an existing antibody developed at UQ, DS90 helped prevent the virus from mutating into new, deadlier forms.
This discovery opens the door to future antiviral nanobody therapies that are scalable, heat-stable, and easy to produce - a potential game-changer in the fight against emerging diseases.
The team used cryogenic electron microscopy at CMM to examine the process.
Special acknowledgement to Naphak Modihran and Yu Shang Low who were involved in the structure determination on the ARM300.
The research has been published in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology.