Niladri Sekhar Nath - All Headline News Foreign Correspondant

According to scientists at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, have found the breakthrough.

Dr. Josef Penninger told The Associated Press, " Learning how SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) became a deadly threat possibly teaches us a lesson on how to actively fight so diverse and dreadful diseases as SARS, avian flu or the effects of such biotech weapons as anthrax."

The research findings have been published in the medical journal, Nature.

Penninger and his colleagues made the finding while experimenting on mice, and found that the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is a crucial receptor for the SARS virus.

If the enzyme gets infected with SARS, disruption of the body's protective renin-angiotensin system occurs and that leads to respiratory distress syndrome as fluids seep into the air sacks.

SARS was first detected in 2003, in China. It spread quickly to Asia, Canada and elsewhere. The disease claimed almost 800 lives.