Roles of Cholesterol in Early and Late Steps of the Nipah Virus Membrane Fusion Cascade
Erik Contreras, Gunner P. Johnston, David W. Buchholz, Victoria Ortega, I. Abrrey Monreal, J. Lizbeth Reyes Zamora, Tracy Cheung, Hector C. Aguilar
Abstract
family, capable of causing a high mortality rate in humans and high morbidity in domestic and agriculturally important animals. The role of cholesterol for NiV or the henipaviruses is unknown. Here, we show that the levels of cholesterol influence the levels of NiV-induced cell-cell membrane fusion during syncytium formation and virus-cell membrane fusion during viral entry. Furthermore, the specific role of cholesterol in membrane fusion is not well defined for the paramyxoviruses. We show that the levels of cholesterol affect an early F-triggering step and a late fusion pore formation step during the membrane fusion cascade. Thus, our results expand our mechanistic understanding of the viral entry and cell-cell fusion processes, which may aid the development of antivirals.