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Publications

Journal Article Ahead of print

PubMed: 41794028 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2026.01.037

Deltaviruses spread through a viral Trojan Horse.

Cell

Authors: Joe McKellar, Aurélien Fouillen, Sébastien Lyonnais, Marie-Pierre Blanchard, Florian Seigneuret, Antonio Trullo, Zoé Denis, Roni Sleiman, Brandon Le Bon, Laurence Berry, Lorena Kumarasinghe, Jules Bouget, Arinya Apostel, Maria Bacia-Verloop, Sylvain De Rossi, Yasmine Messaoud-Nacer, Sophie Colomb, Solange Desagher, Isabelle K Vila, Nadine Laguette, Sébastien Granier, Hugues de Rocquigny, Raphael Gaudin, Valérie Courgnaud, Irina Gutsche, Jussi Hepojoki, Karim Majzoub

Affiliations

  • Institut de Génétique Moléculaire de Montpellier (IGMM), Univ Montpellier, CNRS, Montpellier, France.
  • Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle (IGF), Univ Montpellier, CNRS, Inserm, Montpellier, France.
  • Centre d'Études des Maladies Infectieuses et Pharmacologie Anti-Infectieuse (CEMIPAI), CNRS, Univ Montpellier, Montpellier, France.
  • Biocampus (BCM), Univ Montpellier, CNRS, Inserm, Montpellier, France.
  • Morphogenèse et Antigénicité du VIH et des Virus des Hépatites (MAVIVH), Inserm, Tours, France.
  • Institut de Biologie Structurale, Université Grenoble Alpes, CEA, CNRS (IBS), 38044 Grenoble, France.
  • Biocampus (BCM), Univ Montpellier, CNRS, Inserm, Montpellier, France; Laboratory of Pathogens and Host Immunity (LPHI), Univ Montpellier, CNRS, Inserm, Montpellier, France.
  • Institut de Recherche en Infectiologie de Montpellier (IRIM), CNRS, Univ Montpellier, Montpellier, France.
  • Université de Montpellier, Département de médecine légale, Pôle Urgences, Centre Hospitalo-Universitaire de Montpellier, Montpellier, France.
  • University of Helsinki, Medicum, Department of Virology, Helsinki, Finland.
  • Institut de Génétique Moléculaire de Montpellier (IGMM), Univ Montpellier, CNRS, Montpellier, France.

Abstract

Hepatitis D-like satellite viruses, known as deltaviruses, have been recently discovered in a wide range of animals. These viruses are thought to expropriate glycoproteins from helper viruses to form infectious particles. Here, we challenge this paradigm and demonstrate that deltaviruses are packaged within helper virus particles, using them as viral Trojan Horses for cell entry. By leveraging orthogonal electron and optical super-resolution microscopy, we visualize deltaviruses enclosed within virions from rhabdo-, herpes-, and arenavirus families. We show that this conserved hitchhiking mechanism ensures concomitant deltavirus-helper virus spread, thereby promoting the dissemination of deltaviruses, broadening their host range, and expanding their tropism. Our findings reveal a previously unrecognized mode of viral transmission, providing a framework to investigate overlooked deltavirus infections outside of the human liver.

MeSH

Viral Tropism, Virion, Helper Viruses, Cell Biology, Zoonoses, Viruses, Satellite Viruses, Communicable Diseases