Histo-blood group antigens (HBGAs) are commonly accepted as the cellular receptors for human norovirus. However, some human noroviruses have been found not to bind any HBGA ligand, suggesting potential additional co-factors. Some ligands have been found to bind noroviruses and have the potential to be additional cellular receptors/attachment factors for human norovirus or inhibitors of the HBGA interaction. The studies identifying these mostly characterize different chemical, human, food, or bacterial components and their effect on norovirus binding and infection, although the mechanism of interaction is unknown in many cases. This review seeks to supplement the already well-covered HBGA-norovirus literature by covering non-HBGA human norovirus ligands and inhibitors to provide investigators with a more comprehensive view of norovirus ligands.
Keywords: enteric virus; histo-blood group antigens; norovirus; transkingdom; virus–bacteria interaction.