A spike protein-dependent cellular factor other than the viral receptor is required for mouse hepatitis virus entry.

Previous studies have shown that some mouse strains are resistant to mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) infection despite the presence of functional viral receptors (K. Yokomori and M. M. C. Lai, J. Virol. 66, 6931-6938, 1992). To determine the molecular requirement for MHV infection, several cell lines derived from both susceptible and resistant mouse strains were tested for their ability to support infection by two different MHV strains, JHM and A59. Most of the cell lines tested, including ones from susceptible mouse strains, exhibited selective resistance to JHM, but were susceptible to A59, suggesting that there is an additional cellular factor(s) discriminating JHM from A59 infection. Both RNA and protein syntheses of JHM were inhibited in the resistant cells; however, transfection of JHM genomic RNA into these cells led to the production of infectious virus, suggesting that the restriction step(s) is during an early stage of viral replication cycle. The mRNA for the MHV receptor (the murine homolog of the carcinoembryonic antigen) is expressed in all cell lines, and expression in COS cells of the receptor isolated from the resistant murine cell lines rendered the COS cells susceptible to both A59 and JHM infections. Furthermore, the transfection of additional MHV receptors into the resistant cells did not overcome the resistance to JHM virus infection. These results suggested that the viral receptor is functional; nevertheless, the JHM infection is restricted at an early step of infection in these cells. The study of the growth properties of the various recombinant viruses between A59 and JHM revealed that one of the viral genes determining viral replication in these cell lines is the S protein gene; thus, the second factor required for viral infection may interact directly or indirectly with the S protein at an early step of infection. Taken together, these studies suggest that expression of a functional viral receptor is not sufficient to establish MHV infection, and that an additional factor(s) is required for an early step of viral infection, possibly during virus entry.