24 Lymphocyte Homing Receptor CD44 and Poliovirus Attachment

Abstract

IDENTIFICATION OF CELLULAR PROTEINS INVOLVED IN POLIOVIRUS ATTACHMENT
Poliovirus, the causative agent of poliomyelitis, is a member of the Picornaviridae, a family of single-stranded RNA viruses that cause a variety of human diseases (Ginsberg 1980). Infection of susceptible cells begins when the viral capsid, which consists of 60 copies of each of four proteins arranged in icosahedral symmetry, binds to a receptor site on the cell surface. Most strains of poliovirus infect only primates and replicate primarily in the intestine, tonsils, deep cerebellar nuclei, brain stem, motor cortex, and anterior spinal gray matter (Bodian 1949). Results of studies utilizing organ minces and homogenates suggest that the tissue tropism and species specificity of poliovirus are determined primarily by the presence or absence of unique virus-binding activity (Holland 1961).

During the 1980s, several monoclonal antibodies, directed against the surface of susceptible cells, were isolated that blocked poliovirus binding and infection (Minor et al. 1984; Nobis et al. 1985; Shepley et al. 1988). Antibodies 280 and D171 specifically blocked poliovirus infection and were subsequently found to be directed against the same protein (Minor et al. 1984; Nobis et al. 1985; V. Racaniello, pers. comm.). A third monoclonal antibody, AF3, which preferentially blocked type 2 poliovirus, detected a 100-kD glycoprotein only in cells and tissues permissive to poliovirus infection (Shepley 1988; Shepley et al. 1988). Antibody D171 was utilized to isolate and clone poliovirus receptor (PVR) cDNA, which encodes a new member of the immunoglobulin superfamily (Mendelsohn et al. 1989). This cDNA confers poliovirus...