Logo image
Not your usual tRNA synthetase: HWARS serves as an enterovirus entry factor
Journal article   Open access

Not your usual tRNA synthetase: HWARS serves as an enterovirus entry factor

Stanley Perlman and Tom Gallagher
The Journal of clinical investigation, Vol.128(11), pp.4767-4769
11/01/2018
DOI: 10.1172/JCI124582
PMCID: PMC6205376
PMID: 30320601
url
https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI124582View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Enteroviruses, including subtype EV-A71, infect the brain, liver, heart, and other organs, causing a myriad of human diseases. This spectrum of disease is thought to be due, in part, to differential binding to host cells, and additional knowledge of enterovirus cell entry is essential for therapeutic development. In this issue of the JCI, Yeung et al. provide evidence of a novel EV-A71 entry factor, a host-produced tryptophan tRNA synthetase (hWARS), that facilitates entry of multiple subtypes of enteroviruses. hWARS is a cytoplasmic enzyme that is essential for translation but also upregulated and secreted during inflammatory processes. The results of this study support the notion of secreted hWARS as an unconventional virus entry factor that raises interesting questions about mechanisms by which inflammation and a tRNA synthetase facilitate viral pathogenesis.

Details

Logo image