%0 Journal Article
%T The role of glycoprotein H of equine herpesviruses 1 and 4 (EHV-1 and EHV-4) in cellular host range and integrin binding
%A Azab Walid
%A Zajic Lara
%A Osterrieder Nikolaus
%J Veterinary Research
%D 2012
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1297-9716-43-61
%X Equine herpesvirus type 1 and 4 (EHV-1 and EHV-4) glycoprotein H (gH) has been hypothesized to play a role in direct fusion of the virus envelope with cellular membranes. To investigate gH¡¯s role in infection, an EHV-1 mutant lacking gH was created and the gH genes were exchanged between EHV-1 and EHV-4 to determine if gH affects cellular entry and/or host range. In addition, a serine-aspartic acid-isoleucine (SDI) integrin-binding motif present in EHV-1 gH was mutated as it was presumed important in cell entry mediated by binding to ¦Á4¦Â1 or ¦Á4¦Â7 integrins. We here document that gH is essential for EHV-1 replication, plays a role in cell-to-cell spread and significantly affects plaque size and growth kinetics. Moreover, we could show that ¦Á4¦Â1 and ¦Á4¦Â7 integrins are not essential for viral entry of EHV-1 and EHV-4, and that viral entry is not affected in equine cells when the integrins are inaccessible.
%U http://www.veterinaryresearch.org/content/43/1/61