Elsevier

Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews

Volume 4, Issue 1, July–September 1989, Pages 1-26
Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews

Binding and entry of animal viruses

https://doi.org/10.1016/0169-409X(89)90035-5Get rights and content

Abstract

Viruses are infectious agents capable of packaging and delivering nucleic acids and proteins to specific populations of cells. To initiate infection, viruses bind to sites, or receptors, on the cell surface and transfer their genome across the limiting membrane of the cell. The mechanisms underlying these events, and viral tropism for particular host cells, are becoming increasingly well understood. Several cell surface proteins have now been identified as viral receptors, and analyses of intact virus particles and sub-viral components are revealing the structures of the binding determinants on the viruses themselves. For many viruses, the events leading to penetration and delivery involve constitutive endocytic properties of the host cell, and the low pH environment in endocytic compartments is a crucial trigger in the penetration process. The knowledge of viral tropism, binding and entry suggests strategies which may be applied to the design of targeted therapeutic agents with appropriate specificities and effective delivery mechanisms.

Keywords

Endocytosis
Membrane fusion
Viral entry
Viral tropism
Virus binding site
Virus receptor
Virus receptor interference

Abbreviations

EBV
Epstein-Barr virus
HIV
human immunodeficiency virus
HTLV
human T-cell leukaemia virus
HA
haemagglutinin
HRV
human rhinovirus
MHC
major histocompatability agent
VSV
vesicular stomatitis virus
SVP
subviral particles
SFV
Semliki Forest virus
NA
neuraminidase

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