MHC class I molecules are incorporated into human herpesvirus-6 viral particles and released into the extracellular

Megumi Ota1, Satoshi Serada, Tetsuji Naka

  • 1Division of Clinical Virology, Center for Infectious Diseases, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, 7-5-1, Kusunoki-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe, 650-0017, Japan.

Microbiology and Immunology
|December 17, 2013
PubMed

Human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6), which belongs to the betaherpesvirus subfamily, mainly replicates in T lymphocytes. Here, we show that MHC class I molecules are incorporated into HHV-6 viral particles and released into the extracellular environment. In addition, HHV-6A/B-infected T cells showed reduced surface and intracellular expression of MHC class I molecules. The cellular machinery responsible for molecular transport appears to be modified upon HHV-6 infection, causing MHC class I molecules to be transported to virion assembly sites.

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