Human herpesvirus 7 glycoprotein B(gB), gH, gL, gO can mediate cell fusion

Human herpesvirus 7 (HHV-7) infection is dependent on the functions of structural glycoproteins at multiple stages of the viral life cycle. These proteins mediate the initial attachment and fusion events that occur between the viral envelope and a host cell membrane, as well as cell to cell spread of the virus. To characterize the HHV-7 glycoproteins that can mediate cell fusion, a cell-based fusion assay was used. 293T cells expressing the HHV-7 glycoproteins of interest along with a luciferase reporter gene under the control of the T7 promoter were cocultivated with SupT1 cells transfected with T7 RNA polymerase. HHV-7 glycoproteins gB, gH, gL and gO can mediate the fusion of 293T cells with SupT1 cells, and the fusion can be inhibited by anti-CD4 mAbs. Thus, the coexpression of HHV-7 gB, gO, gH and gL is sufficient and necessary for HHV-7 induced membrane fusion, and one of these glycoproteins or protein complex formed by these glycoproteins might be the ligand(s) of CD4 molecule.