West nile virus articles from across Nature Portfolio

West Nile Virus is emerging as an important pathogen in Europe, likely driven by recent climate and land-use changes. Here, the authors estimate the extent of the climate change-driven impact by modelling the change in West Nile Virus ecological suitability across the continent in the absence of climate change.

West Nile virus is an animal pathogen that has spread rapidly in Europe in recent years, causing several human deaths. This study investigates the spatial and temporal dynamics of the virus circulation between Africa (its place of origin) and Europe.

In this study, Lin and Zhao et al. show that type I IFN autoantibodies promote West Nile virus infection in enterocytes, which correlates with encephalitis disease risk in humans; while in mice, type I IFN signaling defects associate with gastrointestinal tract and blood-brain barrier permeability and disease severity.

RIPK3 is a well-known mediator of the necroptosis cell death pathway, which is an important antiviral defence mechanism. In an unexpected twist, RIPK3 has now been shown to also drive neuroprotective inflammation in the central nervous system during West Nile virus infection in a cell-death-independent manner.

Two recent papers have revealed further details of how RNA viruses engage the host innate immune system.