“ This new study, led by researchers from the University of Illinois Chicago, initially set out to investigate why acute HSV-1 infections can be fatal in some immunocompromised people and harmless in many others. The answer came in the form of a protein called optineurin (OPTN).
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“OPTN stops the virus from growing and it stops it by autophagy – engulfing the virus particles inside tiny vesicles called autophagosomes,” says Deepak Shukla, lead researcher on the project. “The autophagy that happens is very selective."
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In mice lacking OPTN the viral infection rapidly spread into the brain and significant neurodegeneration was subsequently observed.