Ancient viruses

Retroviruses are viruses that have evolved the ability to write their genetic code into a cell’s own DNA. The most ancient known lineage of retroviruses, foamy viruses, emerged around 450 million years ago, before animal life moved onto land or even the evolution of trees.  

Today, scientists are harnessing this ancient ability to rewrite cells’ DNA, in order to engineer retroviruses as cutting-edge gene therapies for a range of conditions.

Foamy viruses can infect a wide range of cells and aren’t known to cause disease so they’re promising candidates for retrovirus-based therapies. But there are still lots we need to know about how they work, including how they infect cells, before we can realise that potential. That’s where our team comes in.

Structural similarities

We have been studying foamy viruses using a powerful imaging technology called cryogenic electron microscopy (cryoEM). This allows us to compare the 3D structure of foamy viruses to other viruses, to better understand mechanisms of infection.

We recently revealed an unexpected connection: the surface proteins that foamy viruses use to enter cells appear to be structurally related to those of important pathogenic respiratory viruses, including modern viruses like SARS-CoV-2, RSV and measles.

This suggests to us that these viruses work in similar ways, not only revealing clues about how one might block modern viruses from infecting cells but also advancing work to engineer foamy viruses to treat genetic diseases and cancer.