Protease, Growth Factor, and Heparanase-Mediated Syndecan-1 Shedding Leads to Enhanced HSV-1 Egress

Heparan sulfate (HS) and heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) are considered important for the entry of many different viruses. Previously, we demonstrated that heparanase (HPSE), the host enzyme responsible for cleaving HS chains, is upregulated by herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) infection. Higher levels of HPSE accelerate HS removal from the cell surface, facilitating viral release from infected cells. Here, we study the effects of overexpressing HPSE on viral entry, cell-to-cell fusion, plaque formation, and viral egress. We provide new information that higher levels of HPSE reduce syncytial plaque formation while promoting egress and extracellular release of the virions. We also found that transiently enhanced expression of HPSE did not affect HSV-1 entry into host cells or HSV-1-induced cell-to-cell fusion, suggesting that HPSE activation is tightly regulated and facilitates extracellular release of the maturing virions. We demonstrate that an HSPG-shedding agonist, PMA; a protease, thrombin; and a growth factor, EGF as well as bacterially produced recombinant heparinases resulted in enhanced HSV-1 release from HeLa and human corneal epithelial (HCE) cells. Our findings here underscore the significance of syndecan-1 functions in the HSV-1 lifecycle, provide evidence that the shedding of syndecan-1 ectodomain is another way HPSE works to facilitate HSV-1 release, and add new evidence on the significance of various HSPG shedding agonists in HSV-1 release from infected cells.