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Tracy Hampton, PhD

JAMA. 2006;296:2429.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have identified a human protein that is instrumental in varicella-zoster virus' spread from cell to cell in the body (Li Q, Ali MA, and Cohen JI. Cell. 2006;127:305-316). The varicella-zoster virus, which causes both chickenpox and shingles, enters and infects cells by attaching to a cellular protein called insulin-degrading enzyme, their experiments revealed.

The investigators' in vitro studies showed that preventing a viral molecule, glycoprotein E, from binding to insulin-degrading enzyme in target cells inhibits the spread of the virus among cells. In addition, expression of human insulin-degrading enzyme in cell lines that do not normally become infected with varicella-zoster virus resulted in increased viral entry and enhanced infection.

A new study shows that a human protein plays a role in cell-to-cell spread of varicella-zoster virus in patients with chickenpox and shingles. (Photo credit: P. Marazzi, . . . [Full Text of this Article]