Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have identified how influenza A hijacks cellular functions to reproduce.
The study findings, published online today in Cell, also identifies a link between congenital defects in that machinery — the RNA exosome — and the neurodegeneration that results in people who have that rare mutation.
It was by studying the cells of patients with an RNA exosome mutation, which were contributed by six collaborating medical centers, that the investigators were able to understand how influenza A hijacks the RNA exosome inside a cell’s nucleus for its own purposes.
