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A new player in the puzzle of filovirus entry

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 10, pages 317–322 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

Viruses of the genera Ebolavirus and Marburgvirus are filoviruses that cause haemorrhagic fever in primates, with extremely high fatality rates. Studies have focused on elucidating how these viruses enter host cells, with the aim of developing therapeutics. The ebolavirus glycoprotein has been found to play key parts in all steps of entry. Furthermore, recent studies have identified Niemann–Pick C1 (NPC1), a protein that resides deep in the endocytic pathway, as an important host factor in this process.

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Figure 1: The life cycle of EBOV.
Figure 2: EBOV GP priming and triggering: possible roles of NPC1.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge grant U54 AI057168 from the US National Institutes of Health for funding work on EBOV entry, M. Brecher and S. Gregory for help with figure 2b, and M. Brecher, D. Castle and J. Shoemaker for helpful comments on the text.

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  1. Judith M. White and Kathryn L. Schornberg are at the Department of Cell Biology, University of Virginia, 1340 Jefferson Park Avenue, Charlottesville, Virginia 22908–20732, USA.,

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Correspondence to Judith M. White.

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White, J., Schornberg, K. A new player in the puzzle of filovirus entry. Nat Rev Microbiol 10, 317–322 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro2764

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