The ability of rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus to agglutinate human erythrocytes and to attach to rabbit epithelial cells of the upper respiratory and digestive tracts was shown to depend on the presence of ABH blood group antigens. Indeed, agglutination was inhibited by saliva from secretor individuals but not from nonsecretors, the latter being devoid of H antigen. In addition, erythrocytes of the rare Bombay phenotype, which completely lack ABH antigens, were not agglutinated. Native viral particles from extracts of infected rabbit liver as well as virus-like particles from the recombinant virus capsid protein specifically bound to synthetic A and H type 2 blood group oligosaccharides. Both types of particles could attach to adult rabbit epithelial cells of the upper respiratory and digestive tracts. This binding paralleled that of anti-H type 2 blood group reagents and was inhibited by the H type 2-specific lectin UEA-I and polyacrylamide-conjugated H type 2 trisaccharide. Young rabbit tissues were almost devoid of A and H type 2 antigens, and only very weak binding of virus particles could be obtained on these tissues.
Rabbit hemorragic disease virus (RHDV) is a noncultivablecalicivirus that infects rabbits and causes epidemics of an acute fatal hepatitis. The disease is characterized by high morbidity and mortality rates for adult animals. Death is the result of a widespread circulation dysfunction associated with disseminated intravascular coagulation and necrotizing hepatitis lesions (14, 24). Large quantities of virus particles are found in several organs, especially the liver, which is considered the major site of virus replication (6,14,19,27). The viral genome consists of a single-stranded RNA of nearly 7.5 kb, packaged in a small icosahedral capsid (3, 15). The capsid protein has an estimated molecular mass of 60 kDa (VP60) (16), and expression of the corresponding cDNA in insect cells infected with a recombinant baculovirus yields a protein that spontaneously assembles into virus-like particles (VLPs). These VLPs are both antigenically and morphologically similar to native RHDV particles (11,23). Yet very little is known about the pathogenesis of naturally occurring RHDV infections, and identification of the cellular receptor(s) used by the virus to establish infection would lead to a better understanding of the pathogenesis of RHDV.RHDV is known to agglutinate human erythrocytes (2, 25), and previous studies demonstrated that its hemagglutinin receptor on human red blood cells corresponds to a developmental antigen which is not expressed on fetal cells and is mainly carried by polyglycosylceramides (26). The glycolipid nature of the receptor on human red blood cells suggests that the carbohydrate moiety could be recognized by the virus capsid protein. Carbohydrate antigens of the histo-blood group family are developmental antigens that can be shared among various mammal species, and the presence of some of these antigens has been detected on epithelial cells of the rabbit digestive tract (1,17,21...