Effect of polyions on the early events of Sindbis virus infection of Vero cells

Abstract

To clarify the role of electrostatic interactions in the binding of Sindbis virus (SNV) to cell membrane receptors, we investigated the effect of different polyions on the initial steps of infection of Vero cells by the virus. Several polyanions (mucin, heparin, polygalacturonic acid) and polycations (polylysine, protamine, polybrene) were able to reduce the replication of SNV when present in the viral adsorption period, whereas others (chondroitin sulfate, polymyxin B sulfate, histone) were devoid of any activity. Therefore the electric charge alone is not sufficient to explain the action of compounds. The effects of polyions on receptor binding, on bound virus, and on internalized virus have been examined. All the drugs inhibited SNV infection by affecting its binding to the cellular receptor. The results indicated that heparin and mucin act directly on the virus particle while polycations bind to the cell membrane receptor for the virus, protamine being effective on both targets. Since among polyanions glycosaminoglycans showed a strong inhibiting activity, the involvement of these molecules in the virus surface receptor was assessed by enzyme digestion of cell membrane with heparinase and chondroitin ABC lyase.

A comparative study of the effect of dextran sulfate on the fusion and the in vitro replication of influenza A and B, Semliki Forest, vesicular stomatitis, rabies, Sendai, and mumps virus

“…Erythrocytes, however, do not interact measurably with the polyanion. This finding agrees with results reported by Mastromarino et al [12,13] which show that dextran sulfate does not interact with Vero-and red blood cells. The target of polyanions is thus the viral and not the cell membrane.…”

Baculovirus vector requires electrostatic interactions including heparan sulfate for efficient gene transfer in mammalian cells

“…Thus, baculovirus can be added to the growing list of viruses using heparan sulfate to bind mammalian cells: adeno-associated virus type 2 [29], human immunode®ciency virus type 1 [12,30], vaccinia virus [31], foot-andmouth disease virus type O [32], Semliki and Sindbis alphaviruses [27,33], respiratory syncytial virus [34], varicella zoster virus [35], and several members of the herpesvirus family [26, 36±39]. Interestingly, binding to and transduction of mammalian cells by a recombinant baculovirus pseudotyped with the vesicular stomatitis virus G (VSV-G) protein [40] were also inhibited in the presence of heparin or polybrene, and bound to heparin and also BSA columns (G.D., unpublished observations).…”

Evaluation of recombinant alphaviruses as vectors in gene therapy

“…A similar observation was made earlier with Sindbis virus using various polyanions and cations, suggesting that alphaviral attachment is different from retroviral attachment and can actually be disturbed by the presence of polyionic compounds. 28 The use of fibronectin-coated plates yielded a small improvement, but it was statistically insignificant.…”