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Space Researchers Gain Insight into Deadly Virus

Michael Braukus
Headquarters, Washington, DC                   February 5, 1998
(Phone:  202/358-1979)

Steve Roy
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL
(Phone:  205/544-0034)

RELEASE: 98-22

SPACE RESEARCHERS GAIN INSIGHT INTO DEADLY VIRUS

    NASA and industry biotechnology researchers have taken an 
important step toward developing a treatment for a life-
threatening virus that causes pneumonia and severe upper 
respiratory infection in infants and young children.

    The infection, called Respiratory Syncytial Virus, attacks 
the respiratory airways and lungs.  According to the National 
Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine in Washington, DC, 
nearly four million children ages one to five are infected 
every year in the United States by the virus.  Approximately 
100,000 of these children require hospitalization and 4,000 die 
annually from the resulting infection.  The virus is considered 
by physicians to be the most serious infectious disease for 
infants in the United States.

    "Through NASA funded research in space and on the ground, 
and the application of space technology, we have determined the 
three-dimensional atomic structure of a potentially very important
therapeutic antibody to this virus," said Dr. Daniel Carter,
president of New Century Pharmaceuticals in Huntsville, AL.
Antibodies aid the individual's immune system by neutralizing
toxins, such as viruses, as they attempt to invade healthy cells.  

    Knowledge of the molecular structure of the antibody will 
permit scientists to understand key interactions between the 
antibody and virus, facilitating development of 
treatments for the disease.

    "Currently, there is no vaccine against the virus," said 
Simon McKenzie, chief executive officer of Intracel Corp. in 
Issaquah, WA, which developed and produces the antibody.  
"Since this antibody neutralizes all known variants of the 
virus, therapeutics developed from it should have a major 
impact on lowering the mortality rate caused by the 
disease.  And knowing its structure will provide key insight 
into our future development activities."

    The illness most frequently begins with a fever, up to 101 
degrees Fahrenheit, along with runny nose, cough and sometimes 
wheezing and trouble breathing.  When his six-week old daughter 
caught the respiratory infection, Carter saw the effects of the 
virus first-hand.  "There was nothing the hospital could do for 
her," he said.  "We brought her home, watched as the infection 
ran its course and hoped for the best," he said.  His daughter 
recovered.

    Carter's research team used the viral antibody to grow 
antibody crystals aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia in June and 
July of 1997.  In the weightless environment of space known as 
microgravity, the antibody crystals grew larger and were of 
better quality than those previously grown on Earth.

    Using highly specialized X-ray equipment and computers, 
scientists at New Century Pharmaceuticals located the key 
positions of individual atoms in the crystal structure and 
constructed a model of the antibody.  Because of the perfection 
and increased size of the space-grown crystals, the researchers 
were able to precisely determine the atomic structure of the 
antibody.

    Dr. Arnauld Nicogossian, Associate Administrator of NASA's 
Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences, Washington, DC, which 
sponsored the joint research effort by government and industry, 
said, "This concrete benefit to human health is invaluable in 
demonstrating the importance of space-based research in solving 
Earth-based medical problems, as well as the need to have a 
permanently orbiting research facility.  The International 
Space Station, to begin assembly later this year, will be at 
the forefront of new medical discoveries while it opens the 
space frontier to exploration."

                             - end -