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Journal of Virology, September 2007, p. 9546-9550, Vol. 81, No. 17
0022-538X/07/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.00569-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Porcine Arterivirus Attachment to the Macrophage-Specific Receptor Sialoadhesin Is Dependent on the Sialic Acid-Binding Activity of the N-Terminal Immunoglobulin Domain of Sialoadhesin
Peter L. Delputte,1*,
Wander Van Breedam,1,
Iris Delrue,1
Cornelia Oetke,2
Paul R. Crocker,2 and
Hans J. Nauwynck1
Laboratory of Virology, Department Virology, Parasitology, and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Merelbeke, Belgium,1
Division of Cell Biology and Immunology, Wellcome Trust Biocentre, University of Dundee, Dundee, United Kingdom2
Received 19 March 2007/
Accepted 24 May 2007

ABSTRACT
The sialic acid-binding lectin sialoadhesin (Sn) is a macrophage-restricted
receptor for porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus
(PRRSV). To investigate the importance of pSn sialic acid-binding
activity for PRRSV infection, an R
116-to-E mutation was introduced
in the predicted sialic acid-binding domain of pSn, resulting
in a mutant, pSn
RE, that could not bind sialic acids. PSn, but
not pSn
RE, allowed PRRSV binding and internalization. These
data show that the sialic acid-binding activity of pSn is essential
for PRRSV attachment to pSn and thus identifies the variable,
N-terminal domain of Sn as a PRRSV binding domain.

TEXT
Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV)
is a member of the family
Arteriviridae, which belongs, together
with the
Coronaviridae and
Roniviridae, to the order
Nidovirales (
12,
14,
19,
23). The virus causes reproductive disorders in
pregnant sows and boars and respiratory problems in pigs of
all ages. In vivo, the virus has a tropism for a subpopulation
of macrophages (
10,
11), and only primary pig macrophages and
continuous cell lines derived from African green monkey kidney
cells, such as Marc-145 cells, allow efficient virus replication
in vitro (
1,
16,
28,
29). Heparan sulfate is a PRRSV receptor
on macrophages that mediates virus attachment, and the viral
matrix protein has been shown to be a heparin-binding protein,
suggesting its potential role as a viral ligand for heparan
sulfate (
8,
25). Sialoadhesin (Sn) was identified as an essential
PRRSV receptor that mediates both attachment and internalization
on macrophages (
5-
7,
9,
26). Although Sn was shown to be essential
for infection of macrophages, other, unidentified, factors are
essential for productive infection, since expression of Sn in
PRRSV nonpermissive cells, such as PK-15 and CHO K1 cells, allows
virus internalization but no virus uncoating, genome release,
or production of infectious virus (
5,
26). Other putative PRRSV
receptors have been described. Macrophage-specific monoclonal
antibodies (MAbs) that block or reduce infection of macrophages
were shown to be directed, respectively, against a protein of
approximately 220 kDa and a 150-kDa protein doublet, but these
proteins have not been identified and their exact role in PRRSV
infection is not established (
31). Recently, another MAb that
blocks PRRSV infection of Marc-145 cells was shown to recognize
a complex of cytoskeletal proteins (
17), and an intact cytoskeleton
was shown to be important for efficient infection of Marc-145
cells (
2).
The PRRSV receptor pSn contains, like other sialoadhesins, an N-terminal variable immunoglobulin (Ig)-like domain, followed by 16 constant Ig domains. The conservation of the critical amino acids of the sialic acid-binding variable Ig-like domain in pSn and the observation that sialic acid-carrying sheep red blood cells agglutinate to porcine Sn-expressing macrophages suggest that porcine Sn is also a sialic acid-binding lectin, but this has not been conclusively demonstrated (7, 26). The domain of pSn that is involved in the interaction with PRRSV has not been identified. The fact that neuraminidase treatment of the porcine arterivirus blocks infection of macrophages may indicate that sialic acids present on viral glycoproteins are important for virus interaction with Sn (7). Therefore, it was investigated in this study whether the sialic acid-binding activity of porcine Sn can be eliminated by site-directed mutagenesis and whether the absence of sialic acid-binding activity has an effect on the interaction of the porcine arterivirus with Sn.
The amino acid residues critical for sialic acid-binding activity have been identified for mouse Sn by a combination of site-directed mutagenesis, nuclear magnetic resonance, and crystallography (4, 18, 20, 27). To generate a sialic acid-binding mutant of pSn, the amino acid R116, which is by analogy to mouse Sn critical for the sialic acid-binding activity of pSn, was changed to an E residue by site-directed mutagenesis (QuikChange; Stratagene) of the pcDNA3.1/pSn vector (26) with the primers pSnRE_F (TCGGGCTCCTATAACTTCGAATTTGAGATCAGCGAGGGC) and pSnRE_R (GCCCTCGCTGATCTCAAATTCGAAGTTATAGGAGCCCGA). Sequencing confirmed the presence of the R116-to-E mutation and the absence of other mutations in pSnRE. Continuous cell lines expressing pSn (CHO-pSn) or pSnRE (CHO-pSnRE) were selected from transfected CHO K1 cells by growth in medium containing G418 sulfate (Invitrogen), followed by cloning. Surface expression and total expression of both wild-type and mutant Sn in transfected CHO K1 cells were detected, respectively, by fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis and by Western blotting using the pSn-specific MAb 41D3. Surprisingly, both surface-expressed and total expression levels of Sn with a mutation in the sialic acid-binding domain were at levels 10- to 20-fold higher than wild-type Sn (Fig. 1). Similar findings were described for mouse Sn, but how this is caused is not exactly known (22). One explanation might be that the sialic acid-binding capacity of Sn predisposes the protein for rapid turnover or degradation, but clearly this needs further investigation.
To confirm that pSn
RE lacks sialic acid-binding capacity, CHO
K1, CHO-pSn, and CHO-pSn
RE cells were used for red blood cell
binding assays (
3,
7). Briefly, CHO cells were pretreated for
30 min at 37°C with different concentrations of
Vibrio cholerae neuraminidase (Roche) to remove potential
cis-acting sialic
acids that could interfere with the sialic acid-binding capacity
of pSn and were then washed and incubated with sialic acid-containing
sheep red blood cells for 30 min at room temperature. Qualitative
analysis of red blood cell binding was done with light microscopy.
Quantitative analysis of red blood cell binding was based on
the presence of pseudoperoxidase activity of hemoglobin in red
blood cells. Plates were fixed with methanol; a peroxidase substrate
(Substrate Reagent Pack; R&D Systems) was added and processed,
according to the manufacturer's recommendations; and the optical
density at 450 nm (OD
450) was measured. When transfected cells
were not pretreated with neuraminidase, no red blood cell binding
was detected (Fig.
2), suggesting the presence of inhibitory
cis-acting sialic acids (
3,
13). Strong red blood cell binding
was observed for CHO-pSn cells after pretreatment with 10 mU/ml
neuraminidase. Pretreatment of the cells with higher concentrations
of neuraminidase resulted in small increases in red blood cell
binding (Fig.
2). Binding of red blood cells was strongly reduced
by treatment of the red blood cells with 50 mU/ml
V. cholerae neuraminidase (Roche) or by incubation of the CHO cells with
100 µg/ml purified pSn-specific MAb 41D3, confirming the
sialic acid and Sn dependence of red blood cell binding (data
not shown). No red blood cell binding was observed for the CHO
K1 and CHO-pSn
RE cells (Fig.
2). These data clearly show that
pSn is indeed a sialic acid-binding lectin and demonstrate the
loss of the sialic acid-binding capacity of pSn
RE.
Previously, it was shown that CHO K1 and PK-15 cells allow PRRSV
attachment and internalization upon expression of pSn (
5,
26).
To investigate the importance of the sialic acid-binding capacity
of pSn for porcine arterivirus interaction with pSn, we used
CHO-pSn, CHO-pSn
RE, or parental CHO K1 cells. Alternatively,
PK-15 cells were used after transient transfection with pSn
and pSn
RE by use of Lipofectamine (Invitrogen). Cells were inoculated
with the European prototype PRRSV strain Lelystad virus (LV)
(
29), the American prototype PRRSV strain VR-2332 (
1), or the
Belgian isolate 94V360 (
9) at a multiplicity of infection of
5. After 1 h of incubation at 37°C, cells were washed and
fixed with methanol. LV and 94V360 virus particles were stained
with the PRRSV nucleocapsid-specific MAb P3/27 (
30), and the
VR-2332 virus particles were stained with the American-type
PRRSV nucleocapsid-specific MAb SDOW17 (
21), followed by fluorescein
isothiocyanate-labeled goat anti-mouse IgG. Cortical actin,
which forms a thin layer just beneath the plasma membrane, was
stained with Texas Red-labeled Phalloidin (Invitrogen) to allow
discrimination between attached and internalized virus particles.
Image acquisition and analysis of virus attachment and internalization
were done by confocal microscopy with a Leica TCS SP2 laser-scanning
spectral confocal system. For the CHO K1 cells that were mock
transfected, few virus particles were stained for the three
PRRSV isolates tested (Fig.
3). As previously shown, this low
level of virus attachment most likely results from the interaction
of PRRSV with heparan sulfate (
5). Very abundant PRRSV staining
was observed for CHO-pSn cells that expressed recombinant pSn
(Fig.
3). For CHO-pSn
RE cells, few virus particles were stained,
suggesting that the sialic acid-binding capacity of pSn is essential
for efficient interaction of PRRSV with pSn. Similarly, only
PK-15 cells with expression of pSn showed a clear staining of
internalized PRRSV particles, while no internalization was observed
in wild-type PK-15 cells or PK-15 cells expressing the sialic
acid-binding mutant pSn
RE. To quantify virus internalization,
the number of virus particles present inside the ring of cortical
actin was counted (15 cells for each experimental condition).
Virus particles were clearly internalized in cells expressing
pSn but not in the parental cells or the cells expressing pSn
RE,
which lack the sialic acid-binding capacity (Fig.
4).
In conclusion, the results of the present study show that the
sialic acid-binding domain of pSn is essential for efficient
Sn-dependent PRRSV binding and internalization. Furthermore,
these data support the importance of sialic acids on PRRSV glycoproteins
for interaction with pSn (
7). Nevertheless, the results exclude
neither the involvement of other Ig domains of pSn nor the involvement
of nonsialylated PRRSV proteins in the interaction of PRRSV
with pSn. Construction of soluble forms of pSn containing various
amounts of pSn Ig domains, as was done previously (
4,
15,
20,
24), and identification of the PRRSV protein that binds to pSn
using these soluble receptors will certainly provide further
insights into the interaction of PRRSV with pSn.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Chantal Vanmaercke and Carine Boone for highly appreciated
technical assistance.
P.L.D. was supported by an EMBO fellowship (ASTF 132-05) and a fellowship (B/06524) from the Special Research Fund of Ghent University. W.V.B. was supported by the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation through Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT-Vlaanderen).

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Laboratory of Virology, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133, B-9820 Merelbeke, Belgium. Phone: 32 9 264 73 66. Fax: 32 9 264 74 95. E-mail:
peter.delputte{at}UGent.be 
Published ahead of print on 13 June 2007. 
Peter L. Delputte and Wander Van Breedam contributed equally to this work. 

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Journal of Virology, September 2007, p. 9546-9550, Vol. 81, No. 17
0022-538X/07/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.00569-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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