The Role of Host Cytoskeleton in Flavivirus Infection

Abstract

The family of flaviviruses is one of the most medically important groups of emerging arthropod-borne viruses. Host cell cytoskeletons have been reported to have close contact with flaviviruses during virus entry, intracellular transport, replication, and egress process, although many detailed mechanisms are still unclear. This article provides a brief overview of the function of the most prominent flaviviruses-induced or-hijacked cytoskeletal structures including actin, microtubules and intermediate filaments, mainly focus on infection by dengue virus, Zika virus and West Nile virus. We suggest that virus interaction with host cytoskeleton to be an interesting area of future research.

Current Understanding of West Nile Virus Clinical Manifestations, Immune Responses, Neuroinvasion, and Immunotherapeutic Implications

“…Using the host cellular machinery, the viral RNA genome trafficks through the cytosol to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), where the viral RNA is translated as a polyprotein that is then cleaved into ten functional proteins by both cellular and viral proteases. There are three structural proteins (capsid [C], pre-membrane [PrM/M], and envelope [E]), and seven non-structural proteins (NS1, NS2A, NS2B, NS3, NS4A, NS4B, and NS5) [4,5]. However, studies suggest that additional proteins may also be produced through ribosomal frameshifting [6,7].…”

Rearrangement of Actin Cytoskeleton by Zika Virus Infection Facilitates Blood–Testis Barrier Hyperpermeability

“…Next, we treated Sertoli cells with actin filaments inhibitors to investigate whether or not the actin filament skeleton functions in ZIKV infection. A slight enhancement of virus invasion and extracellular virus particles production was observed in drugs-treated Sertoli cells, suggesting that CytoD or Jas acts to facilitate ZIKV penetration, which is the opposite of observations in other flaviviruses (Zhang et al 2019). However, there has been controversy about the function of actin inhibitors, such as CytoB and CytoD, in viral infections.…”

“…Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) triggers cortical actin dynamic changes to allow entry into resting CD4 T cells (Yin et al 2020 ). Moreover, correlations between the cytoskeleton and flaviviruses, including West Nile virus (WNV), Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), and DENV, have also been reported (Chu et al 2003 ; Wang et al 2010 ; Henry Sum 2015 ; Zhang et al 2019 ). However, specific research on the role of actin cytoskeleton in terms of BTB disruption after ZIKV infection is lacking.…”

The importance of virion-incorporated cellular RNA-Binding Proteins in viral particle assembly and infectivity

“…Upon accumulation of viral RNA and proteins, these components must travel to the virus assembly areas and, in some instances, vRNA trafficking has been proposed to be mediated by the cytoskeleton [ [68] , [69] , [70] , [71] , [72] , [73] ]. The role of protein chaperones in the trafficking of vRNPs is becoming increasingly evident.…”