"The Ebola virus mutated to better infect humans during the 2014 outbreak"
The paper in Cell: "Human Adaptation of Ebola Virus during the West African Outbreak"The Ebola virus mutated to more effectively infiltrate human cells during the West African outbreak that killed more than 11,300 people between 2013 and 2016.
That's the finding of two teams of virologists in studies published Thursday in the journal Cell. The scientists identified a mutation that changed the part of the virus that fits into receptors on the exterior of the host cell.
Mutant versions of this molecular key were “better at fitting into the lock and got into the cell better,” said Jeremy Luban, a virologist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the lead author of one of the studies.
