📄 Human coronavirus NL63 utilizes heparan sulfate proteoglycans for attachment to target cells

Human coronavirus NL63 (HCoV-NL63) is an alphacoronavirus that was first identified in 2004 in the nasopharyngeal aspirate from a 7-month-old patient with a respiratory tract infection. Previous studies showed that HCoV-NL63 and the genetically distant severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV employ the same receptor for host cell entry, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), but it is largely unclear whether ACE2 interactions are sufficient to allow HCoV-NL63 binding to cells. The present study showed that directed expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) on cells previously resistant to HCoVNL63 renders them susceptible, showing that ACE2 protein acts as a functional receptor and that its expression is required for infection. However, comparative analysis showed that directed expression or selective scission of the ACE2 protein had no measurable effect on virus adhesion. In contrast, binding of HCoV-NL63 to heparan sulfates was required for viral attachment and infection of target cells, showing that these molecules serve as attachment receptors for HCoV-NL63.

keywords 🔗 severe acute (1373) 🔗 present study (186) 🔗 host cell (262) 🔗 converting enzyme (162) 🔗 respiratory syndrome (2004) 🔗 respiratory tract (344) 🔗 angiotensin-converting enzyme (112) 🔗 acute respiratory (1734) 🔗 nasopharyngeal aspirate (38)

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