Yi-Hao Chan

Jul 24, 2024 | nature.com | Yi-Hao Chan |zhiyong Liu |Paul Bastard |Oliver Harschnitz |Peng Zhang |Gabriele Ciceri | +14 more

AbstractMost cases of herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) encephalitis (HSE) remain unexplained1,2. Here, we report on two unrelated people who had HSE as children and are homozygous for rare deleterious variants of TMEFF1, which encodes a cell membrane protein that is preferentially expressed by brain cortical neurons. TMEFF1 interacts with the cell-surface HSV-1 receptor NECTIN-1, impairing HSV-1 glycoprotein D- and NECTIN-1-mediated fusion of the virus and the cell membrane, blocking viral entry.