Single-particle tracking of hepatitis B virus-like vesicle entry into cells.

Xian Hao (1, 2) , Xin Shang (1) , Jiazhen Wu (1, 2) , Yuping Shan (1, 2) , Mingjun Cai (1) , Junguang Jiang (1) , Zhong Huang (3) , Zhiyong Tang (4) , Hongda Wang (1)

1 State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry
2 Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences
3 IPS-CAS - Institut Pasteur de Shanghai, Académie des Sciences de Chine - Chinese Academy of Sciences
4 National Center for Nanoscience and Technology

HBsAg, the surface antigen of the hepatitis B virus (HBV), is used as a model to study the mechanisms and dynamics of a single-enveloped virus infecting living cells by imaging and tracking at the single-particle level. By monitoring the fluorescent indicator of HBsAg particles, it is found that HBsAg enters cells via a caveolin-mediated endocytic pathway. Tracking of individual HBsAg particles in living cells reveals the anomalously actin-dependent but not microtubule-dependent motility of the internalized HBsAg particle. The motility of HBsAg particles in living cells is also analyzed quantitatively. These results may settle the long-lasting debate of whether HBV directly breaks the plasma membrane barrier or relies on endocytosis to deliver its genome into the cell, and how the virus moves in the cell.

Domains: Immunology; Microbiology and Parasitology

Xian Hao, Xin Shang, Jiazhen Wu, Yuping Shan, Mingjun Cai, et al.. Single-particle tracking of hepatitis B virus-like vesicle entry into cells.. Small, 2011, 7 (9), pp.1212-8. ⟨10.1002/smll.201002020⟩. ⟨pasteur-00624224⟩