Nature Communications (Oct 2021)

Highly efficient intercellular spreading of protein misfolding mediated by viral ligand-receptor interactions

  • Shu Liu,
  • André Hossinger,
  • Stefanie-Elisabeth Heumüller,
  • Annika Hornberger,
  • Oleksandra Buravlova,
  • Katerina Konstantoulea,
  • Stephan A. Müller,
  • Lydia Paulsen,
  • Frederic Rousseau,
  • Joost Schymkowitz,
  • Stefan F. Lichtenthaler,
  • Manuela Neumann,
  • Philip Denner,
  • Ina M. Vorberg

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25855-2
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 15

Abstract

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Pathologic protein aggregates associated with neurodegenerative diseases have the ability to transmit to unaffected cells via extracellular vesicles or direct cell-to-cell contact. Here, Liu et al. show that viral glycoproteins can contribute to intercellular proteopathic seed transmission via both routes.