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A CHANCE discovery' by. virologists of Baylor college of, medicine in Houston, Texas, could stop life-threatening diarrhoea in children, dead in tracks.

Led by Mary Estes, the virologists were actually investigating the parts of the virus when they stumbled on to how the viral particles infect human cells. "We found out how the virus infects the cell ... And we were not even looking for what we found", said Estes.

Laboratory tests in mice revealed a protein NSPewhich triggered diarrhoea in mice. Significantly, only those mice which were a few days old fell prey to the disease. The age component could thus help in the making of a vaccine which could overwhelm the -virus causing the infection in infants.

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