Background
Hendra virus (HeV) emerged in 1994 in two separate outbreaks of severe respiratory disease in horses with subsequent transmission to humans resulting from close contact with infected horses. Nipah virus (NiV) was later determined to be the causative agent of a major outbreak of disease in pigs in 1998-99 along with cases of febrile encephalitis among people in Malaysia and Singapore who were in close contact exposure to infected pigs (reviewed in [
1,
2]). Phylogenetic analysis revealed that HeV and NiV are distinct members of the
Paramyxoviridae [
3,
4] and are now the prototypic members of the new genus
Henipavirus within the paramyxovirus family [
4]. Pteropid fruit bats, commonly known as flying foxes in the family
Pteropodidae, are the principal natural reservoirs for both NiV and HeV (reviewed in [
2]) however recent evidence of henipavirus infection in a wider range of both frugivorous and insectivorous bats has been reported [
5,
6].
Since their identification, both HeV and NiV have caused repeated spillover events. There have been 14 recognized occurrences of HeV in Australia since 1994 with at least one occurrence per year since 2006, the most recent in May 2010. Every outbreak of HeV has involved horses as the initial infected host, causing lethal respiratory disease and encephalitis, along with a total of seven human cases arising from exposure to infected horses, among which four have been fatal and the most recent in 2009 (reviewed in [
2]) [
7‐
9]. By comparison there have been more than a dozen occurrences of NiV emergence since its initial recognition, most appearing in Bangladesh and India (reviewed [
2]) and the most recent in March 2008 [
10] and January 2010 [
11]. Among these spillover events of NiV the human mortality rate has been higher (~75%) along with evidence of person-to-person transmission [
12,
13] and direct transmission of virus from flying foxes to humans via contaminated food [
14].
In contrast to other paramyxoviruses, NiV and HeV exhibit an extremely broad host tropism and in addition to bats, horses, pigs and humans, natural and/or experimental infections have also been reported in cats, dogs, guinea pigs, hamsters (reviewed in [
2]), ferrets [
15] and some nonhuman primates, the squirrel monkey [
16] and the African green monkey [
17,
18]. In those hosts susceptible to henipavirus-induced pathology, the disease is characterized as a widespread multisystemic vasculitis, with virus replication and associated pathology in highly vascularized tissues including the lung, spleen and brain [
2,
19]. Both the broad host and tissue tropisms exhibited by NiV and HeV can for the most part be explained by the highly conserved and broadly expressed nature of the receptors the henipaviruses employ, the ephrinB2 and B3 ligands [
20‐
23] which are members of a large family of important signaling proteins involved in cell-cell interactions (reviewed in [
24,
25]).
NiV and HeV possess two envelope glycoproteins anchored within the viral membrane, a trimeric fusion (F) and a tetrameric attachment (G) glycoprotein (reviewed in [
26]). The F glycoprotein is initially synthesized as a precursor F
0 which is cleaved into the disulfide-linked F
1 and F
2 subunits by cathepsin L within the host cell [
27]. The G glycoprotein consists of a stalk domain and globular head and G monomers form disulfide-linked dimers that associate in pairs forming tetramers [
28]. The F and G oligomers associate within the membrane and G is responsible for engaging receptors, which in turn triggers F-mediated membrane fusion (reviewed in [
26]). The F and G glycoproteins of NiV and HeV share ~88% and 83% amino acid identity and both NiV and HeV can elicit cross-reactive anti-envelope glycoprotein antibody responses [
29]. It has also been demonstrated that F and G of NiV and HeV can efficiently complement each other in a heterotypic manner in cell-fusion assays [
30]. The henipavirus F and G glycoproteins share many of the general structural features found in the envelope glycoproteins of other paramyxoviruses, and recently the structure of both receptor-bound and unbound forms of the globular head domain of NiV G have been reported [
31,
32].
Because of their highly pathogenic nature and lack of approved vaccines or therapeutics, HeV and NiV are classified as biological safety level-4 (BSL-4) select agents by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and as priority pathogens by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), having the potential to cause significant morbidity and mortality in humans and major economic and public health impacts (reviewed [
1]). These restrictions have somewhat limited detailed studies on virus entry and their envelope glycoprotein functions in the context of a viral particle. To circumvent these restrictions, virus pseudotyping systems have been examined, where the envelope glycoproteins from one virus are incorporated into the progeny virions of another that lacks its own envelope glycoprotein(s), effectively changing the host range and tropism of the virus. For example, the F and G envelope glycoproteins of NiV have been successfully incorporated into recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) lacking VSV G glycoprotein (VSV-ΔG) and encoding green fluorescent protein (GFP) [
21,
33]. Other widely employed viral pseudotyping systems are those based on retroviral vectors, and lentiviral vectors have emerged as promising tools for a variety gene-delivery studies and can efficiently transduce proliferating as well as quiescent cells (reviewed in [
34]).
Virus pseudotyping systems have been useful for the study of otherwise highly pathogenic viral agents such as Ebola and Marburg viruses, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and influenza virus [
35‐
37]. Here, building on the initial findings of Kobayashi et al., [
38], who first demonstrated that simian immunodeficiency virus from African green monkey (SIVagm) could be functionally pseudotyped with the F and hemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) glycoproteins of Sendai virus (SeV), we demonstrate for the first time that the F and G envelope glycoproteins of NiV and HeV, a cellular protein receptor using paramyxovirus, can also be functionally pseudotyped into lentivirus particles using either a luciferase or GFP reporter gene encoding HIV-1 genome. These HIV-1 based, henipavirus glycoprotein pseudotyped particles exhibited the same cellular tropism characteristics as authentic NiV and HeV, and virus entry was specifically inhibited by antiviral agents that target the henipaviruses. The pseudotyped particles could be readily concentrated by ultracentrifugation without any loss of infectivity, and using this system we also examined the incorporation of F and G glycoproteins into virions, and explored the infectivity and pseudotyping efficiency of cytoplasmic tail truncated versions of F. This lentivirus-based henipavirus glycoprotein pseudotyped particle infection assay can also be conducted safely under BSL-2 conditions and will be a useful tool for measuring henipavirus entry and for studying F and G glycoprotein function in the context of virus particle entry, as well as in assaying and characterizing neutralizing antibodies and virus entry inhibitors.
Discussion
In the present study we have detailed a new and readily adaptable, reporter-gene containing, lentivirus-based pseudotyping system which utilizes functional F and G envelope glycoproteins of the henipaviruses; NiV and HeV. Importantly, like other virus envelope glycoprotein pseudotyping systems, this assay can be conducted safely under BSL-2, a condition which is relevant considering the otherwise highly pathogenic nature of infectious NiV and HeV. We also demonstrate, by several measures, that this henipavirus pseudotyping system faithfully recapitulated the natural NiV or HeV cell attachment and viral glycoprotein-mediated membrane fusion stages of infection.
The henipaviruses bind and infect their host cells by a specific attachment step to the cell surface expressed proteins ephrin-B2 and -B3 [
20‐
23]. The current and widely accepted model of paramyxovirus mediated membrane fusion postulates that upon receptor binding the viral attachment glycoprotein triggers conformational changes in the F glycoprotein, a class I viral fusion glycoprotein. The receptor-induced triggering event is presumed to involve direct contacts between an attachment and fusion glycoprotein and this activation process facilitates a series of conformational changes in F and the glycoprotein transitions into its post-fusion, six-helix-bundle conformation concomitant with the merging of the viral membrane envelope and the host cell plasma membrane [
26,
58]. However, all of the details of the entire receptor binding and fusion activation process have yet to be defined. An important feature of many class I fusion glycoproteins is the two α-helical regions referred to as heptad repeat (HR) domains that are involved in the formation of the six-helix-bundle structure [
59,
60]. HR-1 is located proximal to the amino (N)-terminal fusion peptide and HR-2 precedes the transmembrane domain near the carboxyl (C)-terminus. Peptide sequences from either HR domain of the F glycoprotein of several paramyxoviruses, including HeV and NiV, have been shown to be inhibitors of the F-mediated membrane fusion step in both cell-cell fusion and virus infection assays [
30,
39,
41,
57,
61‐
66]. Here, as has been shown with infectious virus or cell-cell fusion assays, the infection by NiV and HeV F and G lentivirus pseudotypes was completely blocked by the HR-2 based fusion inhibiting peptide (NiV-FC2) [
39].
A number of other tests were also conducted to demonstrate the specificity of the henipavirus pseudotyping system in addition to using the henipavirus peptide fusion inhibitors. In competition assays, the infection of the pseudotypes could also be specifically blocked using recombinant, soluble ephrin-B2 or ephrin-B3 receptor proteins as was previously shown with both henipavirus-mediated membrane fusion as well as live virus infection assays[
20]. In a similar fashion, recombinant, soluble henipavirus G glycoprotein (sG) was also able to completely inhibit the infection of either HeV or NiV pseudotypes by blocking receptor binding, which had been demonstrated previously in both henipavirus-mediated membrane fusion and live virus infection assays [
28]. Finally, the infection by the NiV and HeV pseudotypes could also be completely blocked using a well-characterized, cross-reactive human mAb (m120.4) that is specific for the henipavirus G glycoprotein [
15,
46]. Thus, by a wide variety of well-known and well-characterized approaches the functional henipavirus envelope glycoprotein pseudotyped lentivirus assay system developed here, accurately recapitulates the receptor binding, membrane fusion and infection stages of live HeV and NiV.
Because of both the highly pathogenic features of NiV and HeV, which restricts the use of infectious virus to BSL-4 containment, and the labor intensive nature and challenges associated with a reverse genetics approach, extensive and detailed structural and functional studies on the henipavirus envelope glycoproteins in the context of a viral particle has been limited. To demonstrate the utility of the henipavirus pseudotyping system here, we generated and tested an extensive panel of cytoplasmic tail domain truncation mutants of the NiV and HeV F glycoprotein, and examined the influence of this domain of F on its ability to be incorporated into this budding particles as well as its fusion activity in the context of a viral particle.
Here, it was observed that the deletion of essentially the entire F cytoplasmic tail domain, most notably with the NiV F glycoprotein and to a lesser degree with that of HeV F, impaired their fusogenic activity in the context of a cell-cell fusion assay. These findings were in contrast with previous observations made on the envelope glycoproteins of certain lentiviruses. Studies with human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) envelope (Env) glycoproteins have shown that cytoplasmic domain truncation mutants exhibit significantly enhanced Env fusogenic activity as measured by syncytium formation [
67,
68]. In addition, studies with murine leukemia virus have demonstrated that naturally occurring late cleavage of a small carboxy terminal sequence, designated as the R peptide or p2E, in the cytoplasmic tail results in considerably enhanced cell-to-cell fusion activity [
69,
70]. Whereas for a paramyxovirus F glycoprotein, cytoplasmic tail deletions in simian virus 5 (SV5) [
71], Newcastle disease virus [
72], and human parainfluenza virus (HPIV) type 3 (HPIV-3) revealed significantly reduced syncytium formation, except in one example with HPIV-2, where similar deletions did not affect membrane fusion [
73]. Overall, with the exception of the results with HPIV-2, these studies also demonstrated that subsequent additions of parts of the deleted cytoplasmic tail sequences restored the fusogenic potential of those F glycoproteins. In the case of henipaviruses, one explanation to account for the reduced fusion activity of the entire cytoplasmic tail deleted constructs is poor endocytosis and subsequent Cathepsin L processing of F
0 and the analysis of the surface expressed levels of NiV F
0 versus F
1 in the cytoplasmic tail domain truncation mutants support this conclusion, but to a lesser extent with that of the HeV F truncation mutants.
However, although the cell-cell fusogenic results with the truncation constructs of the henipavirus F glycoproteins reported here were similar to the majority of the observations made with other paramyxoviruses, whether as a result of F
0 precursor processing or by some other mechanism, the cytoplasmic tail deleted HeV and NiV F glycoproteins in the context of the virus particle pseudotyping system, revealed an opposing result. In general, the higher levels of pseudotyped particle infectivity signal correlated with an overall greater level of incorporated F glycoprotein. Interestingly however, the highest luciferase signals in the virus infection assays also correlated with a greater level of unprocessed F
0 in the particles, particularly with FΔCt1, FΔCt2 and FΔCt3 in which most of the cytoplasmic tail was deleted. Potentially, the greater luciferase signals in these instances (FΔCt1, FΔCt2 and FΔCt3) could be due to particle endocytosis following receptor binding [
74] and subsequent F
0 processing by Cathepsin L [
27]. The pseudotyping system described here offers one system, albeit artificial, to explore the possibility of a productive early endocytic route of henipavirus infection. Taken together, this henipavirus pseudotyping system shown here offers a useful tool for measuring not only henipavirus entry and assaying and characterizing virus neutralizing antibodies and virus entry inhibitors, but also offers a highly versatile platform for studying F and G glycoprotein function in the context of a virus particle during infection, and one that can readily assay numerous variations or mutants of either or both the F and G henipavirus glycoproteins.
Methods
Cells and culture conditions
U87 and HuTK
-143B were obtained from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC). Recombinant human osteosarcoma cells bearing CD4 and CXCR4 (HOST4X4) were obtained from the NIH AIDS Research and Reference Reagent Program [
75]. The 293T cells were obtained from Dr. G. Quinnan (Uniformed Services University). HeLa-USU cell line has been described previously [
20]. HeLa-USU, U87, HOST4X4 and 293T cells were maintained in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (Quality Biologicals, Gaithersburg, MD) supplemented with 10% cosmic calf serum (CCS) (HyClone, Logan, UT) and 2 mM L-glutamine (DMEM-10). All cell cultures were maintained at 37°C in a humidified 5% CO
2 atmosphere.
Plasmids
The HeV and NiV F and G envelope glycoproteins were transiently expressed using the mammalian expression vector pCAGGs which contains the CAG promoter and is composed of the cytomegalovirus immediate early enhancer and the chicken
β-actin promoter [
42]. The HIV-1 pNL4-3-Luc-E-R
+ or pNL4-3-GFP-E-R
+ backbone plasmids encoding the luciferase (Luc) [
40] or green fluorescence protein (GFP) reporter gene were provided by Dr. R. Doms (University of Pennsylvania).
Antibodies, recombinant proteins and peptides
The henipavirus G and F glycoproteins were detected with a cross-reactive polyclonal mouse antiserum raised against recombinant, soluble HeV G [
23,
50] or a rabbit polyclonal henipavirus F
1-specific antiserum provided by Dr. L-F. Wang (Australian Animal Health Laboratory, Geelong, Australia) respectively. The human monoclonal antibody (mAb) m102.4 IgG used for inhibition of virus entry [
15,
45,
46] was provided by Dr. D. Dimitrov (National Cancer Institute-Frederick, National Institutes of Health). The fusion inhibiting peptide NiV-FC2 corresponding to the HR2 region of NiV F and the non-fusion inhibiting scrambled control peptide Sc-NiV-FC2 have been previously described [
39]. Recombinant, soluble ephrin-B2 and -B3 were from R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN. Recombinant, soluble NiV G (NiV sG) has been previously described [
76]
Fusion (F) glycoprotein constructs and mutagenesis
Full-length cDNA clones of the NiV and HeV F glycoprotein genes [
30,
41] each including the Kozak consensus sequence (CCACC) appended upstream of the initial ATG [
77] were subcloned into pCAGGs, generating the NiV F-pCAGGs and HeV F-pCAGGs expression vectors. The cytoplasmic tail domain truncation mutants of NiV and HeV F were generated by introducing stop codons corresponding to amino acid positions 517, 518, 522, 528, 531, 533 and 541 of the full-length F glycoprotein by standard PCR techniques. The NiV F-pCAGGs and HeV F-pCAGGs plasmids were used as templates, and the 5' primer included an external
EcoRI site, the Kozak consensus sequence (CCACC) and F-specific sequence. The various 3' primers included F specific sequence, a stop codon at the desired location and an external
KpnI site. All PCR products were gel purified and cloned into the TOPO vector (Invitrogen) and subsequently subcloned into pCAGGs, generating constructs NiV FΔCt1 through FΔCt7 and HeV FΔCt1 through FΔCt7 (Figure
4A and 4B). All constructs were sequenced confirmed.
Attachment (G) glycoprotein constructs and mutagenesis
Full-length cDNA clones of the NiV and HeV G glycoprotein genes [
30,
41] each including the Kozak consensus sequence (CCACC) appended upstream of the initial ATG [
77] were subcloned into pCAGGs, generating the NiV G-pCAGGs and HeV G-pCAGGs expression vectors. The splice site mutations (Figure
1C) of the HeV G gene were generated by site-directed mutagenesis using the QuickChange II Site-directed Mutagenesis Kit and QuickChange Multi Site-directed Mutagenesis Kit (Stratagene, Cedar Creek, TX). The template for the mutagenesis reactions was a HeV G clone in the TOPO plasmid (Invitrogen Corp., Carlsbad, CA). For the first donor splice site D1 at nucleotide position 1749, the TTG codon for leucine was changed to CTT. The other redundant codons for leucine are CTG, CTA, CTC, and TTA, but these were not effective in removing the predicted splice site. For the second donor splice site D2 at nucleotide position 1858, the AGT codon for serine was changed to TCG. For the third donor splice site D3 at nucleotide position 2259, the GGG codon for glycine was changed to GGT. All PCR products were gel purified and cloned into TOPO and subsequently subcloned into pCAGGs. All mutation-containing constructs were sequence verified.
Cell surface biotinylation
HeLa-USU cells grown in T25cm
2 flasks were transfected with the pCAGGs expression constructs of NiV and HeV F alone or along with their partner G glycoprotein constructs with Fugene reagent (Roche Diagnostics Corp, IN) for 36 hrs. Following expression, cells were rinsed three times with ice-cold phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and cell surface proteins were biotinylated using 0.25 mg/ml EZ-Link NHS-Biotin (Pierce, Rockford, IL) in PBS for 30 min at 4°C [
50]. The reaction was quenched by washing the cell monolayer three times with ice-cold PBS before harvesting cells and preparation of cell lysates. Cells were lysed in 100 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0), 100 mM NaCl, 1% Triton X-100 and protease inhibitor at 4°C for 30 min and one-half of each lysate was incubated with 100 μl of 20% vol/vol solution of Agarose-Avidin D beads (Vector Laboratories, Inc., Burlingame, CA) in IP buffer (0.14 M NaCl, 0.1 M Tris, and 0.1% Triton) at 4°C and rotated overnight. Beads were washed twice with lysis buffer followed by one wash with DOC buffer (100 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0), 100 mM NaCl, 0.1% sodium deoxycholate, and 0.1% SDS). Samples were boiled in SDS-PAGE sample buffer with 2-mercaptoethanol, separated on a 4-20% Tris-Glycine gradient gel (Invitrogen), transferred to nitrocellulose, and probed with a cross-reactive polyclonal mouse antiserum to HeV G at a concentration of 1:25,000 or a rabbit polyclonal F
1 specific antiserum at a concentration of 1:25,000.
Cell fusion Assays
Henipavirus F and G mediated fusion activities were measured using a previously described quantitative viral glycoprotein-mediated cell-cell fusion assay [
30,
41,
57]. Briefly, one cell population (effector cells) is infected with a recombinant vaccinia virus expressing the T7 polymerase (vTF7.3) and the other cell population (target cells) is infected with a vaccinia virus encoding the
E. coli lacZ gene (β-Gal) gene under control of the T7 promoter (vCB21R). Cell-cell fusion between effector and target cell results in β-Gal synthesis which can be measured by specific synthetic substrate cleavage. Plasmids encoding NiV or HeV G along with their respective wild-type F glycoprotein partner or the various truncation mutants of F were transfected into HeLa-USU cells and allowed to express overnight (effector cell populations). Effector cell populations were also prepared using empty vector, pCAGGs, or NiV or HeV F glycoprotein alone as additional negative controls. The various effector cell populations were infected with vTF7.3 and a fusion permissive 293T target cell population was prepared by infection with vCB21R. Vaccinia virus infections were carried out with a multiplicity of infection of 10, suspended in media and incubated at 31°C overnight as previously described[
30,
41,
57]. Cell fusion reactions were conducted with the various cell mixtures in 96-well plates at 37°C with a ratio of envelope glycoprotein-expressing cells to target cells of 1:1 using 2 × 10
5 total cells per well in a total volume of 0.2 ml per well for 2.5 h. For quantitative analyses, Nonidet P-40 was added (0.5% vol/vol) and aliquots of the cell-cell fusion lysates were assayed for β-Gal at ambient temperature with the substrate chlorophenol red-d-galactopyranoside (Roche Diagnostics Corp, IN, USA). Assays were performed in triplicate, and fusion results were calculated and expressed as rates of β-Gal activity (change in optical density at 570 nm per minute × 1,000) in an MRX microplate reader (Dynatech Laboratories, Chantilly, VA).
Preparation of henipavirus envelope glycoprotein pseudotyped lentivirus particles
Pseudotyped, HIV-1 reporter gene encoding virus stocks were prepared by transfecting 293T cells with the reporter gene-encoding backbone plasmids pNL4-3-Luc-E-R+ or pNL4-3-GFP-E-R+ along with the henipavirus envelope glycoprotein encoding pCAGGs vectors. 293T cells (0.75 × 106) were seeded in a 6-well flat-bottom collagen I-coated microplate (BD Biosciences, Durham, NC) and transfected with the expression plasmids using the Fugene reagent (Roche Diagnostics Corp, IN). The DNAs of the pNL4-3-Luc-E-R+ or pNL4-3-GFP-E-R+ along with the HeV or NiV F and G encoding pCAGGs plasmids were mixed in the ratio of 1:0.2:0.8, respectively, and added to 500 μl of serum free DMEM and 9 μl Fugene. The mixture was incubated at room temperature for 30 min and then applied to the culture of 293T cells. After 3 to 5 hr incubation at 37°C, transfected cells were washed extensively with DMEM and incubated for additional 24-48 hr with 1 ml of DMEM-10, at 37°C in 5% CO2. The supernatants from virus particle producing cultures were then collected and were clarified by centrifugation for 10 min at 1500 rpm, filtered through low protein binding 0.45 μm syringe filter (Millipore, Bedford, MA) and partially purified through 25% wt/vol sucrose in Hepes-NaCl buffer by centrifugation at 36000 × g at 4°C for 2.5 hr. The pellet was resuspended overnight at 4°C in 10% sucrose in Hepes-NaCl buffer and used immediately or stored at -80°C.
Incorporation of henipavirus envelope glycoproteins in the pseudotyped lentivirus particles
To measure the incorporation of the henipavirus F and G glycoproteins into pseudotyped HIV-1 particles, sucrose cushion purified particles were lysed in buffer containing 100 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8.0), 100 mM NaCl, 2% Triton X-100 and protease inhibitors at 4°C for 30 min. Samples were boiled in SDS-PAGE sample buffer with 2-mercaptoethanol and separated on a 4-20% Tris-Glycine gradient gels (Invitrogen), transferred to nitrocellulose, and probed with a cross-reactive polyclonal mouse antiserum to HeV G at a concentration of 1:25,000 or a rabbit polyclonal F1 specific antiserum at a concentration of 1:25,000.
Pseudotyped virus infection assays
Receptor positive cell lines, seeded into 48-well plates at a concentration of 105 cells per well, were infected (transduced) with pseudovirus, normalized for p24 antigen content using the HIV-1 p24 EIA Kit from Beckman-Coulter, and all infection experiments were carried out in triplicate wells. No DEAE-Dextran or polybrene was used to facilitate fusion/infection by the pseudovirions. After infecting for 2.5-3 hr, the cells were washed and incubated for additional 48-72 hr. For luciferase encoding particles, cells were lysed with 0.5% Triton X-100 in PBS and a 50 μl aliquot of the lysate was assayed for luciferase activity using luciferase substrate (Promega, Madison, WI) on a Mikrowin luminometer (Berthold Technologies Model: Centro LB 960). For the GFP-encoding particles, the efficiency of infection was evaluated by counting the number of green cells 48 h post-infection using Olympus IX81 fluorescent microscope.
For inhibition of pseudotyped virus infection assays, pNL4-3-Luc-E-R+ based virus particles pseudotyped with full-length NiV or HeV F and G envelope glycoproteins were pre-incubated with 2 μg each of NiVsG, mAb102.4 IgG, NiV-FC2 (fusion inhibiting) or Sc-NiV-FC2 (scrambled control peptide), recombinant soluble murine ephrin-B2 (rmEFN-B2/Fc) or recombinant soluble human ephrin-B3 (rhEFN-B3/Fc) at 4°C for 1 hr. Receptor positive 293T cells, seeded into 48-well plates (105 cells per well) were then infected with the various pre-treated pseudotyped virus particles and processed as above. All infection experiments were performed in triplicate.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors' contributions
DK contributed to the development of the Henipavirus pseudovirus assay, designed and constructed all the expression constructs and carried out the experiments, identified the alternative splicing process in the original Hendra virus G encoding pCAGGs plasmid clone, interpreted data, and wrote the first drafts of the figures and manuscript. CCB conceived of and contributed to the development of the Henipavirus pseudovirus assay provided overall supervision and financial support and wrote and prepared the final versions of the figures and manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.