人类疱疹病毒 7 型(HHV-7)的感染依赖于包膜糖蛋白在病毒生命周期的多个阶段发挥功能. 这些蛋白质可以介导病毒吸附,病毒包膜和宿主细胞膜融合以及病毒在细胞间的接触传播. 将表达 HHV-7 糖蛋白的 293T 细胞与 HHV-7 易感的SupT1 细胞共培养,检测虫荧光素酶报告基因的表达,以鉴定介导膜融合的 HHV-7 糖蛋白. 研究发现,HHV-7 糖蛋白 gB、gH、gL、gO 能介导 293T 细胞与 SupT1 细胞的融合,且融合可被抗 CD4 单抗所抑制. 结果表明,糖蛋白 gB、gH、gL、gO对于 HHV-7 引发的膜融合是必需的,其中某个蛋白质或所形成的蛋白质复合物可能是 CD4 的配体.
Human herpesvirus 7 (HHV-7) infection is dependent on the functions of structural glycoproteins at multiple stages of the viral life cycle. These proteins mediate the initial attachment and fusion events that occur between the viral envelope and a host cell membrane, as well as cell to cell spread of the virus. To characterize the HHV-7 glycoprotcins that can mediate cell fusion, a cell-based fusion assay was used. 293T cells expressing the HHV-7 glycoproteins of interest along with a luciferase reporter gone under the control of the T7 promoter were cocultivated with SupT1 cells transfected with T7 RNA polymerase. HHV-7 glycoproteins gB, gH, gL and gO can mediate the fusion of 293T cells with SupTl cells, and the fusion can be inhibited by anti-CD4 mAbs. Thus, the coexpression of HHV-7 gB, gO, gH and gL is sufficient and necessary for HHV-7 induced membrane fusion, and one of these glycoproteins or protein complex formed by these glycoproteins might be the ligand(s) of CD4 molecule.