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Ex Vivo Infection of Murine Epidermis with Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1
Published on: August 24, 2015
A single gD glycoprotein can mediate infection by Herpes simplex virus
Richard W Clarke1, Anna Drews, Helena Browne
1Chemistry Department, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1EW, UK. rwc25@cam.ac.uk
None:
Herpes simplex viruses display hundreds of gD glycoproteins, and yet their neutralization requires tens of thousands of antibodies per virion, leading us to ask whether a wild-type virion with just a single free gD is still infective. By quantitative analysis of fluorescently labeled virus particles and virus neutralization assays, we show that entry of a wild-type HSV virion to a cell does indeed require just one or two of the approximately 300 gD glycoproteins to be left unbound by monoclonal antibody. This indicates that HSV entry is an extraordinarily efficient process, functioning at the level of single molecular complexes.
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