Virus Research 181 (2014) 77–80 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Virus Research j ourna l h o mepa ge: www.elsevier.com/locate/virusres Short communication Surface glycoproteins of the recently identified African Henipavirus promote viral entry and cell fusion in a range of human, simian and bat cell lines Philip Lawrence a , Beatriz Escudero Pérez a , Jan Felix Drexler b , Victor Max Corman b , Marcel A. Müller b , Christian Drosten b , Viktor Volchkov a,* a International Centre for Research in Infectiology (CIRI), INSERM U1111 – CNRS UMR5308, Université Lyon 1, ENS de Lyon, Lyon, France b Institute of Virology, University of Bonn Medical Centre, Bonn, Germany a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 15 November 2013 Received in revised form 8 January 2014 Accepted 9 January 2014 Available online 19 January 2014 Keywords: African Henipavirus Henipavirus glycoproteins Zoonoses a b s t r a c t The recent discovery of a wide range of henipavirus-like viruses circulating in Megabats in Africa raises the question as to the zoonotic potential of these pathogens given the high human mortality rates seen with their pathogenic relatives Nipah virus and Hendra virus. In the absence of cultured infectious African Henipavirus we have performed experiments with recombinant F and G glycoproteins from the repre- sentative African Henipavirus strain M74a aimed at estimating its cellular tropism and capacity to use similar receptors to its highly pathogenic counterparts. The ability of the M74a virus G surface protein to use the ubiquitous Ephrin B2 host cell receptor and its heterologous cross-compatibility with Nipah virus could be expected to impart upon this virus a reasonable potential for species spillover, although differences in fusion efficiency seen with the M74a virus F protein in certain cell lines could present a barrier for zoonotic transmission. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Bats have been shown to serve as reservoirs for a multi- tude of infectious agents, including Henipa-, Filo-, Corona- and Lyssaviruses (Calisher et al., 2006). The Henipaviruses Hendra virus (HeV) and Nipah virus (NiV) are among the most pathogenic zoonotic viruses causing disease in humans (Aljofan, 2013). Although these highly pathogenic viruses are traditionally thought associated with Pteropus bats of South Asia and Australia, the presence of distinct viral clades in phylogenetic relation to Heni- paviruses in different bat species in five African countries has recently been described (Drexler et al., 2012). The widespread presence of related-henipaviruses in bats and livestock in Africa as suggested by serological data (Hayman et al., 2008, 2011 and Peel et al., 2012) and confirmed by direct isolation of viral genetic material from bats (Baker et al., 2012; Drexler et al., 2009, 2012) without apparent evidence of human outbreaks in these areas would suggest that many of these bat-borne viruses currently exist as non-human pathogens that are genetically related to their highly pathogenic relatives. These bat populations may represent * Corresponding author at: International Centre for Research in Infectiology (CIRI), INSERM U1111 – CNRS UMR5308, Université Lyon 1, ENS de Lyon – Molecular Basis of Viral Pathogenicity, TOUR CERVI, 21 avenue Tony Garnier, 69365 Lyon, France. Tel.: +33 437 28 24 50; fax: +33 437 28 24 59. E-mail address: viktor.volchkov@inserm.fr (V. Volchkov). potential viral reservoirs from which spill-over events may occur, as already seen with larger scale outbreaks and high human fatality rates for Nipah virus in Malaysia and Bangladesh. Potentially, given the tremendous number of unresolved cases of encephalitis often ascribed to malaria in Africa (Mathers et al., 2007), these viruses could already be associated with unrecognised diseases. In silico and predication based analyses of the surface fusion (F) and attachment (G) proteins from the representative African Henipavirus strain M74a (Eid hel/GH-M74a/GHA/2009, the only full genome currently available) show that despite relatively low sequence identity (70% for F, 42% for G) when compared to NiV, these surface proteins share key features with their known pathogenic counterparts (Drexler et al., 2012). For example, M74a G protein is predicted to form a three dimensional folded globular protein structurally similar to that of NiV G. Membrane topology prediction on the other hand indicates that both M74a glyco- proteins show slightly extended N-terminal regions in comparison to the known henipaviruses. In the absence cell culture isolates of African Henipavirus and using the available sequence data we have performed experiments with the recombinant F and G glycoproteins from the M74a virus aimed at estimating the potential for cross-species transmission for this pathogen in terms of its capacity to use the same receptors to its highly pathogenic counterparts and therefore its poten- tial for putative species spillover. As these surface molecules are 0168-1702/$ – see front matter © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.virusres.2014.01.003