Molecular biological techniques and genome sequencing/bioinformatics analysis converge to identify RNA secondary structures in the genome of foot-and-mouth disease virus essential for replication

Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus (FMDV) causes perennial infections of both domestic and wild cloven-hoofed animalsaround the globe causing severe economic damage and restrictions on World trade. Economies of the developingWorld are disproportionally affected by FMDV outbreaks. Present FMDV vaccines are ‘killed’: large quantities ofhighly virulent virus are grown in bulk, particles purified, then chemically inactivated. This requires expensive, high-containment, production facilities with attendant risks of breaches in biosecurity. The RNA structures we, andothers, have identified could be partially weakened, or destabilised, rather than be completely disrupted, to produceattenuated FMDV strains. These could serve to either (i) enhance the biosecurity of conventional inactivated vaccineproduction methods, or, (ii) serve as a basis for the rational design of a new generation of live-attenuated vaccines.