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The diffusion of viruses at the cell membrane is essential to reach a suitable entry site and initiate subsequent internalization. Although many viruses take advantage of glycosaminoglycans (GAG) to bind to the cell surface, little is known about the dynamics of the virus–GAG interactions. Here, single-particle tracking of the initial interaction of individual herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) virions reveals a heterogeneous diffusive behavior, regulated by cell-surface GAGs with two main diffusion types: confined and normal free. This study reports that different GAGs can have competing influences in mediating diffusion on the cells used here: chondroitin sulfate (CS) enhances free diffusion but hinders virus attachment to cell surfaces, while heparan sulfate (HS) promotes virus confinement and increases entry efficiency. In addition, the role that the viral mucin-like domains (MLD) of the HSV-1 glycoprotein C plays in facilitating the diffusion of the virus and accelerating virus penetration into cells is demonstrated. Together, our results shed new light on the mechanisms of GAG-regulated virus diffusion at the cell surface for optimal internalization. These findings may be extendable to other GAG-binding viruses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glycoprotein C (gC) of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) mediates initial virus contact with cells by binding to heparan sulfate (HS) chains. The synthetic peptide 137GSRVQIRCRFRNSTR151 overlapping a major part of the HS-binding site of gC inhibited HSV-1 infection and, to some extent, HSV-2 infection of cells. Experiments on mutant, glycosaminoglycan-deficient cells as well as the binding assays involving peptide and purified cell surface components identified HS, and, to a lesser degree, chondroitin sulfate as sites of peptide activity. Anti-HSV-1 activity of the peptide was due to (i) partial inhibition of virus binding to cells and (ii) arresting the virions, which managed to attach to the cells in the presence of peptide, at a step of initial relatively weak binding. Analysis of the ionic-strength dependence of the peptide–HS and the virus–HS interactions revealed that the more efficient inhibition by the peptide of HSV-1 than HSV-2 infectivity was due to a relatively high affinity of HSV-2 for HS, a feature of importance in overcoming the peptide block. Mutational analysis of viral gC and peptide variants identified, apart from basic amino acids, two hydrophobic residues Ile142 and Phe146 as important in maintaining the specific affinity of peptide for HS and, hence, its anti-HSV activity. These results could contribute to the development of anti-HSV compounds that target initial events in the virus–cell interaction. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Previous reports have indicated that lactoferrin inhibits herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection during the very early phases of the viral replicative cycle. In the present work we investigated the mechanism of the antiviral activity of lactoferrin in mutant glycosaminoglycan (GAG)-deficient cells. Bovine lactoferrin (BLf) was a strong inhibitor of HSV-1 infection in cells expressing either heparan sulfate (HS) or chondroitin sulfate (CS) or both, but was ineffective or less efficient in GAG-deficient cells or in cells treated with GAG-degrading enzymes. In contrast to wild-type HSV-1, virus mutants devoid of glycoprotein C (gC) were significantly less inhibited by lactoferrin in GAG-expressing cells, indicating that lactoferrin interfered with the binding of viral gC to cell surface HS and/or CS. Finally, we demonstrated that lactoferrin bound directly to both HS and CS isolated from surfaces of the studied cells, as well as to commercial preparations of GAG chains. The results support the hypothesis that the inhibition of HSV-1 infectivity by lactoferrin is dependent on its interaction with cell surface GAG chains of HS and CS. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Adaptation of some viruses to replication in cultured cells selects variants that due to alterations in the viral attachment proteins convert to using heparan sulfate (HS) as initial receptor. We report that the nucleotide sequence of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) glycoprotein C (gC), a principal attachment component of the virus, remained unchanged during adaptation of wild-type strains to cultured cells. Likewise, amino acid residues critical for binding of gC to HS were conserved in viral strains that replicated in vivo in different human tissues. Moreover wild-type HSV-1 strains derived directly from clinical specimens were, similar to their cell culture propagated progeny viruses and common laboratory strains, sensitive to heparin and demonstrated impairment in their ability to infect HS/chondroitin sulfate deficient cells. These results demonstrate that the HS-binding ability is a feature of wild-type strains of HSV-1. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Although a number of sulfated polysaccharides have been shown to inhibit infection of cells by herpes simplex virus (HSV), little is known about their effects on the cell-to-cell spread of the virus. These compounds act by inhibiting the virus binding to cells, and their antiviral potencies usually increase with increasing molecular weight and sulfation density. We report that the low molecular weight HS-mimetic, PI-88, which is a mixture of highly sulfated mannose-containing di- to hexa-saccharides, inhibited HSV infection of cells and cell-to-cell spread of HSV-1 and HSV-2. Compared to a relatively large heparin polysaccharide, PI-88 demonstrated weaker inhibition of HSV infectivity but more efficient reduction of cell-to-cell spread of HSV. A tetrasaccharide fraction of PI-88 was the minimum fragment necessary to inhibit HSV-1 infectivity, while a trisaccharide was sufficient to reduce cell-to-cell spread. A reduction in HSV lateral spread was also observed in cells incubated with another low molecular weight compound, pentosan polysulfate but not with much larger polysaccharide chondroitin sulfate E. Some differences as regards the effects of PI-88, heparin, protamine, poly-l-lysine and sodium chlorate on intercellular spread of HSV-1 and HSV-2 were found. We conclude that structurally different sulfated oligosaccharides are preferred for inhibition of HSV infectivity and the cell-to-cell spread. The latter was efficiently inhibited by a relatively small but densely sulfated PI-88 oligosaccharide, very likely due to the capability of the compound to access the narrow intercellular space. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]