Description:

Herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE) is a rare neurological disorder caused by a common DNA virus, HSV-1. Although rare, it’s the most common sporadic viral encephalitis in Western countries. The mortality of this disease is more than 70% if untreated, and about half of acyclovir-treated survivors suffer life-long neurological sequelae of varying severity.

Since 2006, we and others have discovered 14 inborn errors of immunity underlying HSE, most of which disrupt type I IFN immunity in the brain. My presentation will introduce a previously undescribed genetic etiology of childhood HSE and demonstrate that cell death–dependent control is a critical component of antiviral defenses against HSV-1.

Speaker: Zhiyong Liu (US)

Zhiyong was trained as a biochemist and immunologist in China.  Then he joined Casanova Lab as a postdoc in 2019. His work mainly focuses on discovering new genetic determinants of childhood herpes simplex virus encephalitis (HSE), which is a rare and life-threatening neurological disease, and caused mainly by common virus HSV-1.

The publication of Zhiyong Liu is available on Science Immunology. 

Moderator: Selket Delafontaine (Belgium)

Selket is a pediatric resident in the University Hospital Leuven (Belgium) since 2017 and a PhD Student at the Laboratory for IEI at the KU Leuven (Belgium) since 2019. Her research focuses on the immunological and genetic characteristics of IEI underlying neuroinflammation in previously healthy children. Selket is an ESID junior country representative for Belgium.

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