Filovirus Entry: A Novelty in the Viral Fusion World

Hunt, Catherine L.; Lennemann, Nicholas J.; Maury, Wendy

While progress is being made to identify cell surface proteins that enhance filovirus transduction/infection, the advancement of this area of research has been slow. In part this is due to the broad tropism of filoviruses for a variety of different cell types as well as the ability of these viruses to infect cells from a wide range of species [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] . One classical approach to identifying virus receptors that has been used is the introduction of a cDNA library from a permissive cell into a cell that is not permissive for the virus [38] [39] [40] . However, for reasons that are not entirely clear, this type of study has not been successful in identifying cell surface proteins that directly interact with EBOV GP to mediate virus entry [41, 42] . Instead, another screening approach that correlated gene expression in a large panel of human cells with EBOV GP-dependent transduction proved more productive and allowed us to identify a surface receptor for these viruses [43] . The cell surface protein we identified, TIM-1, as well as other cell surface proteins that enhance filovirus infectivity are discussed in detail below.