A recent study showed that premature cell death induced by HCMV infection in MRC5 human lung fibroblasts is inhibited by its gene product pUL38, which interacts with the host protein ubiquitin-specific protease 24 (USP24) and then leads to a decrease in NCOA4 stability, thereby resulting in the inhibition of ferritinophagy [104]. Here, NCOA4 is linked to cytomegalovirus infection.