Researchers find protein clues to fight future viral-induced pandemics

Some of the world’s most dangerous viruses – including Ebola and Marburg – evade our body’s defenses by mimicking the function of certain proteins. The viruses can’t reproduce without a human or animal host, so they copy the actions of these proteins in the host’s body so they can enter cells, reproduce and then spread.

Now an international team of scientists has developed a new computer model that could help find the parts of these proteins that viruses use to make copies of themselves. The researchers hope this work can help prevent future pandemics and protect people from bioterror threats.

James Omichinski and Haytham Wahba at the University of Montreal were part of the research team studying hemorrhagic fever viruses, which include Ebola and less well-known viruses such as the Rift Valley Fever, which can also affect livestock and disrupt the food chain. These viruses pose a unique threat because they are under-studied and, according to Omichinski, “a lot of them we have no vaccines for.”  

Omichinski’s team helped developed a model that can predict whether a protein contains a short linear interacting motif, or SLiM. A SLiM is a section of a protein that can serve many functions. This enables it to control a host cell in ways that help the virus grow.

After identifying 18 proteins expected to contain a SLiM, the team used the Canadian Light Source (CLS) at the University of Saskatchewan to generate three-dimensional images of them. Using those images, the team confirmed that the proteins contained the expected SLiM.

“Once you develop a predictive model, you have to prove that, in fact, what you predict is actually true,” Omichinski said. The CLS “is the only facility in Canada where we can collect this type of data.”

Better understanding the location and behaviour of these protein segments, Omichinski said, could prove useful in developing more effective vaccines against hemorrhagic fevers. “If you understand the mechanisms of how the virus works, then you know better how to target it.”

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Petraccione, Kaylee D., Haytham M. Wahba, Mohamed GH Ali, Timothy Stocker, Ivan Akhrymuk, Yossira Swese, Danuta Sastre et al. "Discovering host-viral protein interactions in autophagy: A LIR discovery pipeline for identifying LC3-interacting region motifs in highly virulent viruses." Plos Pathogens 22, no. 9 (2026): e1014607. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1014607

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