What is it about?
Distemper is a serious infectious disease that occurs in dogs. It is caused by the canine distemper virus. This virus has also been found to infect monkeys in some cases. And it is often fatal. This is because this virus can attach to both dog receptors (SLAM for dogs) and monkey receptors (SLAM for monkeys). Fortunately, it cannot bind to human receptors (human SLAM). The molecular mechanism for this has been clarified.
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Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Most viruses that infect humans are viruses that evolved from animal viruses. Distemper is a serious infection of dogs, but apparently it can also infect monkeys. If the detailed mechanism of infection can be clarified, we can understand the risk of infection in humans and may be able to find ways to prevent human infection.
Perspectives
Emerging infectious diseases, in which animal viruses have jumped to humans, can occur at any time. Knowing the mechanism may help protect us from new infectious diseases, and it can also help us understand the history of virus evolution and human infectious diseases.
Dr Makoto Takeda
Department of Microbiology, The University of Tokyo
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Computational Analysis Reveals a Critical Point Mutation in the N-Terminal Region of the Signaling Lymphocytic Activation Molecule Responsible for the Cross-Species Infection with Canine Distemper Virus, Molecules, February 2021, MDPI AG,
DOI: 10.3390/molecules26051262.
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