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Viruses like the flu may spread around the body by hijacking the “footprint of death” left behind by self-destructing cells. This discovery out of La Trobe University and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) in Australia and Toronto Metropolitan University in Canada unveils a previously unknown part of the process of cell death and renewal that could open the door to more effective drugs. “We have discovered that when a cell dies, it can leave behind a ‘footprint’ to mark the site of cell death and communicate with the immune system,” WEHI cell biologist Georgia Atkin-Smith and biochemist professor of La Trobe Ivan Poon told Newsweek. In the study, conducted using a variety of cell types including those from mice, the team found that as cells self-destruct, they change shape, lift away from their surroundings and leave behind a residue the researchers describe as “the footprint of death.” “Previously it was thought that after a cell had been instructed to die, it was randomly dismantled with limited impact. However, our studies demonstrate that dying cells undergo a series of step-wise changes to ensure they ‘die appropriately’ and can continue to ‘communicate from the grave,'” explained Atkin-Smith and Poon. Woman sick blowing her nose while under blanket on sofa. The deathly “footprint” contains a previously undiscovered type of the extracellular vesicle (EV)—tiny packages released by cells to transport proteins, lipids and RNA to other cells—known as “F-ApoEVs.” These mark the site of a dead cell and serve as “breadcrumb”-like clues to help the immune system identify and clean up cell fragments, preventing unwanted inflammation. However, the researchers’ experiments also revealed that when dying cells are infected with influenza, the virus can hijack this “clean-up process” by hiding particles inside the F-ApoEVs, the team explained, potentially helping to the spread of infection to neighboring cells. “It is well known that the flu can infect cells and cause their death. However, our results discovered that viral particles may hide in this dying cell footprint, using it as a ‘Trojan Horse’ to spread and infect other cells,” said Atkin-Smith and Poon. Paper co-author Stephanie Rutter of La Trobe emphasized in a statement that the findings highlight the importance of cell-to-cell communication to maintain health—and how these processes can be manipulated by viruses. “By better understanding the aftermath of cell death, we hope to generate new knowledge that could led to new drug development to modulate this cell dismantling process,” added Atkin-Smith and Poon. “Cell death is implicated in many disease settings, from infectious diseases, autoimmunity, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Therefore, investing in basic biological research such as cell death research has widespread implications that may impact the treatment of many diseases.” The authors said the next steps are to validate their findings in a series of mouse models and patient samples to confirm the translational potential of their “exciting new findings.” Do you have a tip on a health story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about viruses? Let us know via health@newsweek.com. Rutter, S. F., Kang, T., Ryan, G. F., Shi, B., Vella, C. L., Rajasekhar, P., Cutter, S. W., Hodge, A. L., Ozkocak, D. C., Ang, C.-S., Ratcliffe, J., Binger, K. J., Foneska, P., Mathivanan, S., Geoghegan, N. D., Rogers, K. L., Olson, M. F., Atkin-Smith, G. K., & Poon, I. K. H. (2025). The formation of the ‘footprint of death’ as a mechanism for generating large substrate-bound extracellular vesicles that mark the site of cell death. Nature Communications, 16(1), 9160. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-64206-3
