The Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus: identifying receptors that allow the virus to enter cells

12.04.2024

Although no outbreaks have been recorded in Italy, such a virus is presumably present in our country and has slowly spread throughout Europe. The feared Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus is an emerging infectious agent that can lead to severe disease and has a mortality of up to 40% according to the World Health Organization. The study, Crimean–Congo haemorrhagic fever virus uses LDLR to bind and enter host cells, conducted by a research team including those from the University of Padua, as a partner of INF-ACT, has identified the receptor that allows the virus to enter the cells.

Professor of Microbiology and Virology at the Department of Molecular Medicine of the University of Padua and member of the INF-ACT network, Cristiano Salata explains, “The discovery could lead to changes in strategies to combat this hemorrhagic fever. By knowing how the virus interacts with proteins to enter the cell, we can deactivate the mechanism. We now know the lock and key that the virus uses to infect cells. This work is the result of an important international collaboration, in which our contribution led to the identification of the receptor, a receptor that was then shown to work both with laboratory model viruses, with viruses isolated from patients, and with those isolated from ticks.” 

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever is the second most common vector-borne hemorrhagic fever after dengue. It is a viral pathology transmitted by ticks of the Hyalomma genus, which infest wild mammals, birds, as well as livestock. In Europe, human infections have been recorded in Spain and the Balkans, while Turkey is among the main epicenters of the disease.