Attachment and Penetration Properties of Bovine Herpesvirus 1 Recombinants Expressing Pseudorabies Virus Glycoproteins gC and gB

Abstract

Objective: Bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV-1) has a relatively narrow host cell range in vitro and in vivo when compared to pseudorabies virus (PrV). The aim of this study was to elucidate whether homologous glycoproteins gC and gB from PrV can function in a heterologous BHV-1 background and whether the expression of these PrV glycoproteins influences the in vitro host cell specificity of BHV-1. Methods: We constructed BHV-1 recombinants in which PrV gC and gB were expressed either individually or in combination, and examined their attachment and penetration properties in permissive Madin-Darby bovine kidney (MDBK), semipermissive hamster lung (HmLu-1) and nonpermissive murine embryo fibroblast (A31) cells. Results: Two BHV-1 recombinants which expressed PrV gC exhibited remarkable competence in virus attachment to cells. The expression of PrV gB improved the virus attachment only a little but penetration, especially into HmLu-1 and A31 cells, was enhanced. Conclusions: These results indicate that PrV gC and gB can function in a BHV-1 environment and facilitate virus attachment and penetration by BHV-1.