SCIENTISTS in Oxfordshire have revealed that a major breakthrough could lead to new vaccines and drugs for hepatitis A.

Using the Diamond Light Source particle accelerator at Harwell Oxford science centre, they have mapped the virus at atomic level – revealing vital clues about its evolution.

Prof Dave Stuart, head of life sciences at the facility, said it would help researchers understand how it replicates itself and survives.

He said: “Viruses are too small and fragile to leave a fossil record because they change so quickly.

Our top stories

“Many people would despair of piecing together the story of their evolution, “Their intricate details show mechanisms that form missing links between different families.”

A vaccine exists for hepatitis A, an infection of the liver, but it continues to infect 1.4 million people in parts of the world such as Africa and India.

Symptoms include diarrhoea, vomiting, yellow skin, fever, and abdominal pain.

It is also considered to be a particularly tough virus – capable of surviving in extreme environments – and can hide from the body’s immune system, inside host cells.

Both qualities make it difficult to control the spread of infection.

The work to map its structure in such unprecedented detail was jointly carried out by teams in Oxford and Beijing using Diamond Light Source.

The doughnut-shaped facility functions like a giant microscope by focusing powerful beams of light on matter being studied.

It is approximately 240 metres wide and has a circumference of more than 700 metres — the largest science machine in the UK.

The researchers used its “beamlines” of X-ray light to scrutinise the hepatitis virus in minute detail.

They found is possesses characteristics of viruses that infect humans and animals, as well as those that infect insects. The discovery of its complete structure will be the basis of new research into improved vaccines and anti-viral drugs, the scientists said.

In a statement the group said: “This discovery is ground-breaking in terms of what it reveals about the history and evolution of viruses.”

The findings have been published in a paper, ‘Hepatitis A virus and the origins of picornaviruses’, in the scientific journal Nature.

  • Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.