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Nature 453, 466-467 (22 May 2008) | doi:10.1038/453466a; Published online 21 May 2008

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Cell biology: Viruses in camouflage

Kirsten Sandvig1 & Bo van Deurs2

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The vaccinia virus acts like a Trojan Horse to enter its host cells: it envelops itself in the membrane of a dying cell, and is then taken up by healthy cells.

Endocytosis is the process by which cells internalize extracellular material. It is crucial to cell survival and the proper functioning of tissues, being involved in processes as diverse as growth, neural transmission and pathogen clearance.

  1. Kirsten Sandvig is in the Centre for Cancer Biomedicine, University of Oslo, and the Department of Biochemistry, Institute for Cancer Research, Norwegian Radium Hospital, Rikshospitalet University Hospital, Montebello, 0310 Oslo, Norway.
    Email: ksandvig@radium.uio.no
  2. Bo van Deurs is at the Institute of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, The Panum Building, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, DK-2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark.
    Email: bvd@sund.ku.dk