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Article: Hammering out disease. (RNA found in a virus that afflicts tobacco makes a hammerhead shape and acts like an enzyme)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- September 9, 1989
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1989 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Hammering out disease
ASPIRIN is derived from willow bark, opium from innocent poppies and digitalis--for treating heart disease--comes from foxgloves. To the list of natural remedies, now add a piece of RNA found in a virus that afflicts tobacco.
A small section of this virus's RNA folds up on itself to make a hammerhead shape. Two years ago Dr Olke Uhlenbeck at the University of Colorado realised that the hammerhead was acting like an enzyme. The virus copies its RNA by using the original strand as a template for the new one. The hammerhead is responsible for cleaving the two apart after the copy is finished--the sort of job that is usually done by a ...