Attacking RSV
The light blue rods in this image are particles of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV); the tiny gold specks covering them are antibodies. These antibodies are useful not only because they allow researchers to visualize the virus with fluorescent tagging, but also because they can be used to target the virus in a treatment for RSV.
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DownloadAttacking RSV
The light blue rods in this image are particles of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV); the tiny gold specks covering them are antibodies. These antibodies are useful not only because they allow researchers to visualize the virus with fluorescent tagging, but also because they can be used to target the virus in a treatment for RSV.
What am I looking at?
This is a colored scanning electron microscopy image of RSV shedding from the surface of human lung epithelial A549 cells. The virus particles are blue (1). The lung cells are in the background and are colored red/purple (2). The antibodies bound to gold nanoparticles are the tiny yellow dots covering the virus particles (3).
Biology in the background
RSV is a common reparatory virus that can infect humans of any age but that’s especially dangerous in children and the elderly. The virus can cause more severe symptoms in these two populations because the immune system of a child is not yet fully developed, and the immune system of an elderly person is less efficient. Either of these factors allows RSV to better evade the immune system and therefore reproduce at a higher rate, causing a more severe infection.
The antibodies you see in this image are targeting a glycoprotein in the surface fusion protein family, which is involved in allowing the virus to fuse to the cells it targets. When the antibodies bind to this protein, they block the ability of the virus to attach and deliver the viral RNA into the lung cells, effectively neutralizing it.
An RSV particle is about 150 nanometers long, or roughly 500 times smaller than the width of a human hair.
Technique
This image was created using electron microscopy.
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH