Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2013 Jun 5:10:177.
doi: 10.1186/1743-422X-10-177.

Multiscale perspectives of virus entry via endocytosis

Eric Barrow  1 , Anthony V Nicola, Jin Liu
Affiliations
Review

Multiscale perspectives of virus entry via endocytosis

Eric Barrow et al. Virol J. .

Abstract

Most viruses take advantage of endocytic pathways to gain entry into host cells and initiate infections. Understanding of virus entry via endocytosis is critically important for the design of antiviral strategies. Virus entry via endocytosis is a complex process involving hundreds of cellular proteins. The entire process is dictated by events occurring at multiple time and length scales. In this review, we discuss and evaluate the available means to investigate virus endocytic entry, from both experimental and theoretical/numerical modeling fronts, and highlight the importance of multiscale features. The complexity of the process requires investigations at a systems biology level, which involves the combination of different experimental approaches, the collaboration of experimentalists and theorists across different disciplines, and the development of novel multiscale models.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Illustration of the steps of virus entry via clathrin-mediated endocytosis. (A) Virus approaches the cell surface. (B) Biochemical interactions between ligands and receptors attract virus to the cell surface. (C) Virus attaches to the cell surface and signals the cell. (D) A clathrin-coated pit is formed around the bound virus. (E) A clathrin-coated vesicle is formed, and the dynamin at the neck region facilitate vesicle scission. (F) The vesicle travels to cell interior.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Electron microscopic analysis of HSV-1 uptake into cells. HSV-1 was bound to Vero (A), CHO-nectin-1 (B to D), or HeLa (E and F) cells for 2 h at 4°C. This was followed by a shift to 37°C for 20 min, and then the cells were processed for electron microscopy. Reproduced with permission from reference [29].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Imaging of HIV-1 in contact with T cells. (A-D) Four slices at different depths in a tomogram of the contact between HIV and T cells. (E) 3-D tomographically derived architecture of the contact region. Scale bar in (A) is 100 nm. Reproduced with permission from reference [53].
Figure 4
Figure 4
The interactions between gp120-coated cantilevers and cell receptors are specific. Reproduced with permission from reference [69].
Figure 5
Figure 5
Schematic of the mesoscale model for virus endocytic entry. The virus is modeled as a sphere decorated with ligands. The cell surface is modeled as a plasma membrane with diffusive receptors. The membrane surface is discretized by a curvilinear triangulate system.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Enquist LW. Virology in the 21st century. J Virol. 2009;83:5296–5308. doi: 10.1128/JVI.00151-09. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fauci AS. Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases: influenza as a prototype of the host-pathogen balancing act. Cell. 2006;124:665–670. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2006.02.010. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Morens DM, Folkers GK, Fauci AS. Emerging infections: a perpetual challenge. Lancet Infect Dis. 2008;8:710–719. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(08)70256-1. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Smith AE, Helenius A. How viruses enter animal cells. Science. 2004;304:237–242. doi: 10.1126/science.1094823. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Mercer J, Schelhaas M, Helenius A. Virus entry by Endocytosis. Annu Rev Biochem. 2010;79:803–833. doi: 10.1146/annurev-biochem-060208-104626. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources