Back

Transferrin receptor 1 binds human parvovirus B19 VP1u to facilitate entry

Lee, H.; Bieri, J.; Ammann, N.; Suter, C.; Hunziker, D.; Singh, A. K.; Hafenstein, S. L.; Ros, C.

2026-03-13 microbiology
10.64898/2026.03.12.711364 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Human parvovirus B19 (B19V) exhibits a strict tropism for erythroid progenitor cells, which is governed by the VP1 unique region (VP1u). This region mediates cell-specific uptake by interacting with an unknown cellular receptor, termed VP1uR. Proximity labeling in permissive erythroid cells identified transferrin receptor 1 (TfR1/CD71) as the predominant membrane protein associated with VP1u. VP1u constructs colocalized with TfR1 at the cell surface of erythroid cells. Incubation with anti-TfR1 antibody OKT9 abolished binding and uptake of recombinant VP1u. While OKT9 efficiently inhibited B19V uptake and infection, it did not block virus binding to host cells. Direct binding assays confirmed interaction of VP1u to human TfR1. Using cryoEM we solved the 2.4 [A] structure of the TfR1-VP1u complex, mapping the binding site and identifying the specific interactions. These findings establish TfR1 as the previously unknown receptor, VP1uR, required for B19V uptake.

Published in Nature Communications (predicted rank #1) · training set

Matching journals

The top 2 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

Nature Communications · published here
○ 5641 papers in training set
Top 0.4%
44.3%
Similar papers in this journal
2
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
● 2444 papers in training set
Top 7%
6.5%
Similar papers in this journal
50% of probability mass above
3
Nature Microbiology
○ 155 papers in training set
Top 0.4%
6.5%
Similar papers in this journal
4
eLife
● 5828 papers in training set
Top 27%
4.7%
Similar papers in this journal
5
Science Advances
● 1243 papers in training set
Top 7%
4.2%
Similar papers in this journal
6
Communications Biology
○ 993 papers in training set
Top 6%
3.1%
7
Cell Reports
○ 1498 papers in training set
Top 14%
2.7%
8
PLOS Pathogens
● 820 papers in training set
Top 5%
2.4%
9
mBio
● 833 papers in training set
Top 7%
2.1%
10
Journal of Virology
● 499 papers in training set
Top 2%
2.1%
11
Nature
○ 645 papers in training set
Top 6%
1.8%
12
Cell Research
○ 51 papers in training set
Top 0.6%
1.7%
13
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology
236 papers in training set
Top 2%
1.6%
14
The EMBO Journal
○ 309 papers in training set
Top 4%
1.5%
15
Scientific Reports
○ 3612 papers in training set
Top 68%
1.0%
16
Nucleic Acids Research
◐ 1281 papers in training set
Top 14%
0.8%
17
Cell
○ 431 papers in training set
Top 10%
0.8%
18
Viruses
○ 332 papers in training set
Top 5%
0.8%
19
Structure
○ 193 papers in training set
Top 3%
0.6%

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.