Wyatt Technology instruments were used in a landmark UK study that transformed previous scientific understanding of immunity to viral diseases like the common cold and gastroenteritis.
The breakthrough research, carried out by the UK's Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC LMB), demonstrates the ability of tripartite motif-containing 21 (TRIM21) to neutralise viral infection.
Wyatt Technology's Multi-Angle Light Scattering (MALS) detectors were used to monitor the interaction between TRIM21 and Immunoglobulin G (IgG).
Viruses such as the common cold, AIDS and some forms of cancer are among the hardest diseases to treat and are adept at avoiding recognition by changing their molecular patterns.
Antibodies were originally thought to only offer extracellular protection and were helpless against the virus once it had entered the cytosol of a cell.
However, this study published by the MRC LMB shows that antibodies remain attached to viruses after cell infection and provide effective antiviral immunity.
The Wyatt Technology Heleos II instrument coupled to the Wyatt Technology Optilab rEX online refractive index detector were used to identify the positive interaction between a cytosolic IgG receptor, TRIM21 and IgG.
Scientists discovered that TRIM 21 binds to antibodies with a higher affinity than any other IgG receptor in the human body and once activated begins to rapidly degrade virions in the cytosol, neutralising the infection.
The paper was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) and is available online.
