The study led by Erica Ollmann Saphire at La Jolla Institute for Immunology was the first to image the human antibody response to measles.

Measles is a deadly virus without treatment, but a new La Jolla Institute for Immunology study might change that.

The study published May 7 is the first time researchers imaged the human antibody response to measles in detail, according to study lead, LJI professor, President and chief executive Erica Ollmann Saphire, PhD, MBA.

The results could lead to the world’s first measles-specific treatment, a “remarkable feat” considering measles has been documented since the ninth century, Saphire said.

Finding a measles treatment is “really important for all the people that cannot be vaccinated,” she said, a “growing population of people that are medically unable” to receive inoculation.

The current measles vaccine is a replicating virus vaccine, meaning it’s a weakened virus.

A healthy immune system, upon receiving the measles vaccine, “can knock it back and become immune,” Saphire said. “but kids with cancer, people undergoing certain kinds of treatment, people with immune expressive disorders, pregnant women, none of those people are able to receive” the vaccine.

Further, she said, babies under one cannot be vaccinated either.

And all those groups above are those who are most susceptible to severe measles infections; “there is nothing available for them except hope for the barrier that herd immunity would provide.”

Herd immunity (when enough people are vaccinated against a disease to make its spread unlikely) for measles is waning, however, due to misinformation, a statistic that concerns Saphire as measles cases are resurging.  

The US is at risk of losing its measles-free status for the first time since 2000, Saphire said. “Canada has already lost theirs.”

Understanding the virus

These renderings show proteins from the measles virus (in the center of each structure) bound with neutralizing human antibodies (attached to sides of the viral proteins). These high-resolution structures show where the human immune system can target the measles virus/Courtesy of Dawid Zyla, La Jolla Institute for Immunology

Wanting to help those who can’t be vaccinated, Saphire and her team set out to identify how antibodies bind to the measles virus using an imaging technique called cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM).

“I was just really, really surprised to realize that science had never done the research to understand what antibodies elicited by the measles vaccine were and how they worked,” she said.

The researchers’ work showed in detail where the measles virus is vulnerable to antibody attack and revealed these antibodies reduced viral loads 500-fold in an animal model of measles infection.

The team used the findings to help them isolate and capture 3D images of human antibodies.

This led the team to realize the antibodies targeting measles proteins prevent the virus from further infecting host cells.

The discovery means understanding “what an effective immune response looks like,” Saphire said, adding her team is able to use the knowledge “as a potential medicine to treat or prevent measles infection.”

Current treatment is symptom management, she said: IV fluids and medication to control fever and pain.

Next steps

The Saphire Lab team/Image courtesy of La Jolla Institute of Immunology

The hope floated by this study is the potential to finally address infections in those most vulnerable to an outbreak, Saphire said. 

“We need partnerships and funding to do the less exciting but very necessary work of turning these human antibodies into a medicine,” she said, adding she’s optimistic for public health collaborations that lead to clinical testing in outbreaks.

“You need to be on the spot with the treatment,” she said.

The study further highlights that “the human immune response is extraordinary and powerful and beautiful,” Saphire said. 

“What people’s immune responses have come up with to defeat viruses … is just awe inspiring.”