The herpes virus has a specific 'off-switch' that physically rips the electrical hardware out of your brain cells.
April 14, 2026
Original Paper
Herpes simplex virus pUL56 abolishes neuronal activity by removing voltage-gated ion channels from the plasma membrane
bioRxiv · 10.64898/2026.04.10.717620
The Takeaway
The virus uses a protein called pUL56 to strip sodium and potassium channels off the surface of neurons. This leaves the brain cells physically intact but electrically dead, completely unable to send signals or communicate with the rest of the brain.
From the abstract
Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) infections of the central nervous system cause encephalitis and are associated with increased risk of neurodegeneration, yet the molecular consequences of lytic infection in human neurones remain incompletely defined. We map the transcriptomic, proteomic and surface-proteome changes induced by HSV-1 across the lytic infection cycle in human iPSC-derived cortical glutamatergic neurones. HSV-1 drives extensive plasma-membrane remodelling, including the removal of vol