A major breakthrough by scientists in Britain could help defeat the deadly Zika virus.
The virus outbreak has transformed a previously little-known virus into a World Health Organisation (WHO) declared global public health emergency.
But scientists still don't know enough about Zika, including why and how it has spread so rapidly and what has led to the rise of new disease symptoms.
Now researchers at Glasgow University have been able to shed more light on how the Zika virus works, by sequencing the full-length genome of the virus from a patient in Brazil.
They studied a Zika virus isolated from a patient with classic symptoms and shows the full genomic sequence of the virus, including non-coding regions.
And importantly, the research also identified a Zika virus-derived molecule that inhibits an important part of the host's immune system, which the reseachers say may be key to understanding how the virus causes disease.
The research, published in the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, was supported by the UK Government and Brazilian partners through the Newton Fund and undertaken with a group of international colleges, including in Brazil.
Health agent performs collection and analysis of larvae that cause the mosquito Aedes Egypti in pots and plants in the Butanta residential neighborhood of Brazil. Photo credit: PA
The team compared the genome sequence from the South American Zika virus isolate, which was obtained from a patient in Recife, with other available Zika sequences.
They then looked at the non-coding regions of the sequence which are often missing from other sequences, and detected a portion of the viral genome in infected cells called sfRNA.
The researchers said sfRNA is also detected in infections by related viruses such as dengue, and they described ZIKV sfRNA as having a similar function to those already described as it acts by inhibiting specific parts of the host cell's antiviral response.
Dr Alain Kohl, of the Glasgow Centre for Virus research, said: "We have used the information from a Brazilian isolate, which we obtained from our colleagues in Brazil and fully characterised it in collaboration with them, to identify a virus-derived molecule that inhibits a very important part of the host antiviral response system.
"It is particularly important to show this with sequence information as close as possible to the patient-derived virus, as virus strains that are adapted in cell culture may start to mutate.
"This information is important for understanding the pathogenesis of Zika virus infection but may also be useful for the design of attenuated viruses for vaccine studies in the future."
The researchers hope that the full-length sequence of the patient derived Zika virus will support efforts to combatting the virus.
They also expect the detection of the immune system inhibiting molecule will be important to further understand the virus and how it interacts with its host.
The mosquito-transmitted Zika virus has recently caused large scale outbreaks in French Polynesia in 2013, New Caledonia, the Cook Islands and Easter Island in 2014 and the Americas in May 2015, beginning in Brazil.
The outbreaks have also been characterised by an increased prevalence of neurological syndromes, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome and microcephaly.
As of April this year the WHO announced that 60 countries had reported transmission in the escalating epidemic, which originated in Bahia, Brazil in 2015 and has so far resulted in more than 1.5 million suspected cases.
Universities and Science Minister Jo Johnson said: "This ground breaking research gives us a far greater understanding of the Zika virus and will help protect millions of people in the developing world from the devastating effects of this disease.
"Working closely with Brazilian counterparts, our world leading scientists at the University of Glasgow have demonstrated how the government's £1.5 billion investment in the Global Challenges Research Fund brings together the best scientific minds to tackle serious global problems such as the Zika virus."
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