Chinese Study Reveals Dynamics of How a Single Ebola Virus Enters Cells

Chinese researchers used techniques such as single particle force tracing to reveal the dynamic process and dynamic mechanism of a single Ebola virus invading cells in real time.
The relevant findings are of great significance for the in-depth understanding of the mechanism of Ebola virus infection, and also provide an important reference for the development of antiviral pathways.

Ebola is one of the most deadly pathogens to humans, causing severe hemorrhagic fever with a fatality rate of up to 90%.
Cui Zongqiang, a researcher from Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, collaborated with Shan Yoping, a professor from Changchun University of Technology, and Shi Xinghua, a researcher from the National Center for Nanoscience and Biotechnology, to conduct a study on a single Ebola virus invading cells.

The researchers first constructed and fluorescently labeled filamentous Ebola-like particles.
The filamentous Ebola-like particle has the same ability to invade as the wild Ebola-like virus, but it has no viral nucleic acid inside and cannot replicate.
Using techniques such as single-particle force tracer, dynamic simulation and single-particle fluorescence tracer, the researchers traced the dynamic process of a single Ebola-like particle entering cells and analyzed its dynamic mechanism.

This study revealed that the filamentous Ebola-like particles entered the cells in horizontal or vertical modes, as well as the corresponding fine mechanisms such as space-time, energy, interaction mode with the receptor and invasion pathway, and visually confirmed that the filamentous Ebola-like particles entered the cells in the giant pinocytosis pathway.

At present, the related research results have been published online in the international academic journal “American Chemical Society nano”.