SOX2 and cytomegalovirus infection: Wu et al. [71] found that the HCMV immediate early protein 1 (IE1) mediated Sox2 protein depletion in infected NPCs by promoting nuclear accumulation and inhibiting the phosphorylation of STAT3 to cause Sox2 downregulation, which suggested that HCMV infection may be involved in organ development by altering cell fate decisions by perturbing the SOX2 pathway.