Lipoprotein Receptors Redundantly Participate in Entry of Hepatitis C Virus

PLoS Pathog. 2016 May 6;12(5):e1005610. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1005610. eCollection 2016 May.

Abstract

Scavenger receptor class B type 1 (SR-B1) and low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) are known to be involved in entry of hepatitis C virus (HCV), but their precise roles and their interplay are not fully understood. In this study, deficiency of both SR-B1 and LDLR in Huh7 cells was shown to impair the entry of HCV more strongly than deficiency of either SR-B1 or LDLR alone. In addition, exogenous expression of not only SR-B1 and LDLR but also very low-density lipoprotein receptor (VLDLR) rescued HCV entry in the SR-B1 and LDLR double-knockout cells, suggesting that VLDLR has similar roles in HCV entry. VLDLR is a lipoprotein receptor, but the level of its hepatic expression was lower than those of SR-B1 and LDLR. Moreover, expression of mutant lipoprotein receptors incapable of binding to or uptake of lipid resulted in no or slight enhancement of HCV entry in the double-knockout cells, suggesting that binding and/or uptake activities of lipid by lipoprotein receptors are essential for HCV entry. In addition, rescue of infectivity in the double-knockout cells by the expression of the lipoprotein receptors was not observed following infection with pseudotype particles bearing HCV envelope proteins produced in non-hepatic cells, suggesting that lipoproteins associated with HCV particles participate in the entry through their interaction with lipoprotein receptors. Buoyant density gradient analysis revealed that HCV utilizes these lipoprotein receptors in a manner dependent on the lipoproteins associated with HCV particles. Collectively, these results suggest that lipoprotein receptors redundantly participate in the entry of HCV.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cell Line
  • Fluorescent Antibody Technique
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Gene Knockout Techniques
  • Hepacivirus / physiology*
  • Humans
  • Immunoblotting
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Receptors, LDL / metabolism*
  • Scavenger Receptors, Class B / metabolism*
  • Virus Internalization*

Substances

  • LDLR protein, human
  • Receptors, LDL
  • SCARB1 protein, human
  • Scavenger Receptors, Class B

Grants and funding

This work was supported in part by grants-in-aid from the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED; http://www.amed.go.jp/, grant number; 15fk0210009h002) and from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Japan (MEXT; http://www.mext.go.jp/, grant number; 15H04736). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.