An international team led by researchers at the Pasteur Institute, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Louisiana State University Health Shreveport used cryo-electron microscopy at near-atomic resolution to see how the Andes virus binds to human cells (Nature 2026, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-11184-1). The findings could be a starting point for developing treatments for infections by the Andes virus and other New World hantaviruses, including its North American counterpart, the Sin Nombre virus.
The Andes virus is the hantavirus that infected passengers on the MV Hondius earlier this year. It is primarily found in South America and can cause hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome, a potentially fatal disease with severe respiratory and cardiovascular complications. Although it is mostly rodent borne, the Andes virus is the only hantavirus that can also be transmitted from person to person.