Valeri Erika, Kajaste-Rudnitski Anna
San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute , Milan, Italy.
Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, Vienna BioCenter , Vienna, Austria.
J Exp Med. 2025 Jan 6;222(1). doi: 10.1084/jem.20241743. Epub 2024 Dec 6.
Two complementary works by Chan et al. (https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.20231725), and Ru et al. (https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.20240010), identify defective RNA processing as the root cause of impaired antiviral immunity against SARS-CoV2 in the human brainstem. These studies provide molecular insight into virus-associated severe brainstem encephalitis through PKR inactivation.