Equilibrium and kinetic analysis of Autographa californica nuclear polyhedrosis virus attachment to different insect cell lines

Abstract

The kinetic and equilibrium attachment of Autographa californica nuclear polyhedrosis virus (AcMNPV) to seven insect cell lines was evaluated. Kinetic experiments revealed differences of up to 10-fold in the infection rates among cell lines. Equilibrium binding also varied between cell lines and was saturable. The Tn 5B1-4 and Tn F cell lines had the highest virus binding affinities and infection rates and exhibited diffusion-limited attachment. The rate of infection appears to be limited by the rate of attachment. For the Tn 5B1-4 cells the physical to infective particle ratio for AcMNPV was 5.3. From the Scatchard analyses, the cell lines Tn 5B1-4 and Tn F displayed affinities of 2.35 x 10(10) M-1 and 1.60 x 10(10) M-1, respectively, with 6000 and 13,700 binding sites per cell. The insect cell line Hz 1075, which is not susceptible to AcMNPV infection, displayed a much lower, but saturable, binding of AcMNPV with 900 sites/cell and an affinity of 1.1 x 10(10) M-1. Unlabelled AcMNPV, but not Lymantria dispar MNPV could compete with labelled AcMNPV for binding sites. There were 93 to 96% reductions in virus cell binding following pretreatments of cells with three proteases, suggesting the involvement of a cellular protein component in virus binding. Tunicamycin, an inhibitor of N-linked glycosylation and expression of some membrane proteins on the cell surface, reduced virus binding in a dose-dependent manner suggesting a role for glycoprotein(s) in binding. However there was no evidence for the direct involvement of oligosaccharides in attachment. Metabolic inhibitors of oligosaccharide trimming and competition binding assays using simple sugars caused no measurable reductions in virus binding. These findings suggest that AcMNPV attachment to insect cells is receptor-mediated via a glycoprotein component(s); the direct involvement of oligosaccharide moieties in binding is unlikely.