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Ex Vivo Infection of Murine Epidermis with Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1
Published on: August 24, 2015
Human herpesvirus 6 envelope cholesterol is required for virus entry
Honglan Huang1, Yongmei Li1, Tomohiko Sadaoka2
1Department of Microbiology, Osaka University, Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
Abstract:
In this study, the role of cholesterol in the envelope of human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) was examined by using methyl-beta-cyclodextrin (MbetaCD) depletion. When cholesterol was removed from HHV-6 virions with MbetaCD, infectivity was abolished, but it could be rescued by the addition of exogenous cholesterol. HHV-6 binding was affected slightly by MbetaCD treatment. In contrast, envelope cholesterol depletion markedly affected HHV-6 infectivity and HHV-6-induced cell fusion. These results suggest that the cholesterol present in the HHV-6 envelope plays a prominent role in the fusion process and is a key component in viral entry.
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