Image:
Caption:
Sara Gredmark Russ Photo: Privat
“LRP8 is a protein on the cell surface that is highly expressed in brain cells,” says Sara Gredmark Russ, Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases at the Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, who is responsible for the study at KI.
LRP8 acts as a kind of door opener for the virus. In the study, the researchers show that TBEV’s surface protein binds specifically to LRP8, which enables the virus to enter cells – especially nerve cells in the brain.
Useful for other diseases
– We need to conduct more studies to understand exactly how LRP8 contributes to TBEV causing disease. The next step will be to try to understand what happens in the brain’s neurons during an infection,” says Sara Gredmark Russ.
The discovery opens new opportunities to develop drugs that could prevent the virus from entering the body and limit the infection if someone has been infected.
TBEV is a flavivirus, which are all spread by mosquitoes or ticks and are also responsible for diseases such as yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis and dengue fever.
‘This is the first time anyone has succeeded in identifying a single essential host cell protein that acts as a receptor for flaviviruses, which opens up the possibility of discovering receptors and better treatments for other flavivirus-caused diseases as well,’ says Sara Gredmark Russ.
The study is a collaboration between researchers from Karolinska Institutet, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the United States Army Medical Institute of Infectious Diseases.
The study is funded by, among others, the Swedish Research Council, the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation, and Region Stockholm. See the study for conflicts of interest.
Publication
The Eva Mitters virus, Alexandra L. Tse, Catalina Florez, Janer Javier, Varnaite, Ezgi Kasiki, Caroline K. Martin, Slinna, Haslwanter, Julianna, Has Khanal. Falk, Spain, Felix A. Rey. NatureE, online 24 September 2025. Doi: 10.1038/S41586-025-09500-2.
