As many as half of Americans live with herpes simplex virus (HSV-1). Some may be asymptomatic and not know that they are infected, but others develop cold sores and blisters in and around the mouth and can develop blindness, inflammation of the brain, and dementia. How the virus infects the nervous system has remained unclear.
In a recent study published in Nature, Greg Smith, a microbiologist and immunologist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and his colleagues discovered that HSV-1 kidnaps host motor proteins to move into the nuclei of neurons. The finding has implications for other viruses such as HIV and SARS-CoV-2, according to Smith, and provides an avenue for developing a vaccine.
“This [work] is just terrific. It's really important. It's a brand-new idea that the virus takes up this motor, and it's needed to get to the nucleus,” said Vince Racaniello, a virologist at Columbia University ...
