Human norovirus, a positive-strand RNA virus that is the leading cause of viral gastroenteritis accounting for an estimated 685 million cases and approximately 212,000 deaths globally per year, has no approved vaccines or antivirals. Paving the way for improved drug therapies, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center report in Science Advances the discovery of replication hubs for human norovirus, which could lead to designing antiviral drugs to prevent, control or treat these infections.
“When viruses infect cells, they usually create specialized compartments — replication factories — where they form new viruses that infect more cells causing the disease,” said first author Dr. Soni Kaundal, postdoctoral associate in the Verna and Marrs McLean Department of…