Compounds called defensins--known to prevent viruses from entering cells--appear to do so by preventing the virus from merging to cells’ outer membrane, according to a study by researchers at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, both of the National Institutes of Health, and the University of California at Los Angeles. The study, appearing in the September 11 Nature Immunology, also received funding from NIH’s National Center for Research Resources.
