Virus Cell-to-Cell Transmission

Abstract

2Viral infections spread based on the ability of viruses to overcome multiple barriers and move from cell to cell, tissue to tissue, and person to person and even across species. While there are fundamental differences between these types of transmissions, it has emerged that the ability of viruses to utilize and manipulate cell-cell contact contributes to the success of viral infections. Central to the excitement in the field of virus cell-to-cell transmission is the idea that cell-to-cell spread is more than the sum of the processes of virus release and entry. This implies that virus release and entry are efficiently coordinated to sites of cell-cell contact, resulting in a process that is distinct from its individual components. In this review, we will present support for this model, illustrate the ability of viruses to utilize and manipulate cell adhesion molecules, and discuss the mechanism and driving forces of directional spreading. An understanding of viral cell-to-cell spreading will enhance our ability to intervene in the efficient spreading of viral infections.

Anterograde or retrograde transsynaptic labeling of CNS neurons with vesicular stomatitis virus vectors

“…Alternatively, the LCMV-G protein, but not RABV-G protein, might enable a phenomenon known as transcytosis. HIV, which is also an enveloped virus, can pass from a cell to its neighbor by using such a mechanism (37,38). Based on these results from CP injections, replication-incompetent VSV pseudotyped with LCMV-G could thus be explored for use as a monosynaptic tracer, even without the engineering discussed below.…”

Viral Determinants of Polarized Assembly for the Murine Leukemia Virus

“…In the case of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the human T cell lymphoma virus these cell-cell contacts share features with immunological synapses and have been designated infectious or virological synapses (13,14,19,29,41). Using the murine leukemia virus (MLV) as a model system, we demonstrated that the interaction between the viral Env glycoprotein (Env), expressed on the infected cell and the viral receptor, expressed on the uninfected target cell, leads to the establishment of cell-cell contacts (32,45). Importantly, following the establishment of cellcell adhesion, assembly was polarized toward the cell-cell contact (16).…”

“…Viruses exploit and manipulate cell-cell contacts for efficient spreading (12,18,32,37,43). In the case of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the human T cell lymphoma virus these cell-cell contacts share features with immunological synapses and have been designated infectious or virological synapses (13,14,19,29,41).…”

Alphaherpesvirus axon-to-cell spread involves limited virion transmission

“…After this initial event, infection can spread either locally or across long distances via hematogenous, lymphatic, or neural routes. In either case, spread from cell to cell often involves direct transmission of infectious particles with no or limited release of infectious particles into the extracellular milieu (1). Cell-to-cell spread of some infections, such as HIV, involves transfer of many viral particles (2), whereas other infections, such those caused by poliovirus, involve transfer of small numbers of particles (3).…”