Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 21, 2025

Engineering Antiviral Agents via Surface Plasmon Resonance
Published on: June 14, 2022
Tetherin antagonism by SARS-CoV-2 enhances virus release: multiple mechanisms including ORF3a-mediated defective
Hazel Stewart1, Roberta Palmulli1, Kristoffer H Johansen1,2
1Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge. CB2 1QP. UK.
Abstract:
The antiviral restriction factor, tetherin, blocks the release of several different families of enveloped viruses, including the Coronaviridae. Tetherin is an interferon-induced protein that forms parallel homodimers between the host cell and viral particles, linking viruses to the surface of infected cells and inhibiting their release. We demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 infection causes tetherin downregulation, and that tetherin depletion from cells enhances SARS-CoV-2 viral titres. We investigated the potential viral proteins involved in abrogating tetherin function and found that SARS-CoV-2 ORF3a reduces tetherin localisation within biosynthetic organelles via reduced retrograde recycling and increases tetherin localisation to late endocytic organelles. By removing tetherin from the Coronavirus budding compartments, ORF3a enhances virus release. We also found expression of Spike protein caused a reduction in cellular tetherin levels. Our results confirm that tetherin acts as a host restriction factor for SARS-CoV-2 and highlight the multiple distinct mechanisms by which SARS-CoV-2 subverts tetherin function.
Related Concept Videos
Rous Sarcoma Virus (RSV) and Cancer
RSV is a retrovirus that contains two copies of a plus-strand RNA genome. Its genome consists of four main open...
Receptor-mediated Endocytosis
Clathrin-Mediated Endocytosis of LDL
One well-characterized example of receptor-mediated endocytosis is the...
SNAREs and Membrane Fusion
SNAREs exist in pairs that symmetrically interact and catalyze the fusion of the lipid bilayers in vesicle and target organelle. v-SNARE in the vesicle membrane are single polypeptide chains that bind to a complementary t-SNARE, composed of 2...
Intracellular Signaling Affects Focal Adhesions
Some...
Tail-anchoring of Proteins in the ER Membrane
Mechanisms of Retrovirus-induced Cancers

