Expression of human ficolin-2 in hepatocytes confers resistance to infection by diverse hepatotropic viruses.

Expression of human ficolin-2 in hepatocytes confers resistance to infection by diverse hepatotropic viruses. J Med Microbiol. 2019 Feb 12;: Authors: Jalal PJ, Urbanowicz RA, Horncastle E, Pathak M, Goddard C, Saeed A, Mason CP, Ball JK, Irving WL, McClure CP, King BJ, Tarr AW Abstract The liver-expressed pattern recognition receptors mannose-binding lectin (MBL), ficolin-2 and ficolin-3 contribute to the innate immune response by activating complement. Binding of soluble ficolin-2 to viral pathogens can directly neutralize virus entry. We observed that the human hepatoma cell line HuH7.5, which is routinely used for the study of hepatotropic viruses, is deficient in expression of MBL, ficolin-2 and ficolin-3. We generated a cell line that expressed and secreted ficolin-2. This cell line (HuH7.5 [FCN2]) was more resistant to infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV), ebolavirus and vesicular stomatitis virus, but surprisingly was more susceptible to infection with rabies virus. Cell-to-cell spread of HCV was also inhibited in ficolin-2 expressing cells. This illustrates that ficolin-2 expression in hepatocytes contributes to innate resistance to virus infection, but some viruses might utilize ficolin-2 to facilitate entry. PMID: 30747617 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Journal of Medical Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: J Med Microbiol Source Type: research