The fusion protein of wild-type canine distemper virus is a major determinant of persistent infection.

Plattet, Philippe; Rivals, Jean-Paul; Zuber, Benoît; Brunner, Jean-Marc; Zurbriggen, Andreas; Wittek, Riccardo (2005). The fusion protein of wild-type canine distemper virus is a major determinant of persistent infection. Virology, 337(2), pp. 312-326. Elsevier 10.1016/j.virol.2005.04.012

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The wild-type A75/17 canine distemper virus (CDV) strain induces a persistent infection in the central nervous system but infects cell lines very inefficiently. In contrast, the genetically more distant Onderstepoort CDV vaccine strain (OP-CDV) induces extensive syncytia formation. Here, we investigated the roles of wild-type fusion (F(WT)) and attachment (H(WT)) proteins in Vero cells expressing, or not, the canine SLAM receptor by transfection experiments and by studying recombinants viruses expressing different combinations of wild-type and OP-CDV glycoproteins. We show that low fusogenicity is not due to a defect of the envelope proteins to reach the cell surface and that H(WT) determines persistent infection in a receptor-dependent manner, emphasizing the role of SLAM as a potent enhancer of fusogenicity. However, importantly, F(WT) reduced cell-to-cell fusion independently of the cell surface receptor, thus demonstrating that the fusion protein of the neurovirulent A75/17-CDV strain plays a key role in determining persistent infection.

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