- Researchers at IIT Mandi in Himachal Pradesh have revealed the part of structure of a key protein in COVID-19 virus, which helps in understanding its mode of action, its role in the spread and severity of the disease and development of antiviral therapeutics.
- The current COVID-19 treatments simply manage symptoms while the body fights off the infection with its immune defence system.
- This virus has 16 non-structural proteins (NSP1–NSP16), of which the NSP1 plays a vital role in the pathogenicity (ability to cause disease) of the virus.
- The NSP1 disrupts the proteins of the host cell and suppresses its immune functions. Its importance can be understood by the fact that it is also called the ‘host shutoff factor’.
