Tripartite motif-containing 21 (TRIM21) is a cytosolic IgG receptor that mediates intracellular virus neutralization by antibody. TRIM21 targets virions for destruction in the proteasome, but it is unclear how a substrate as large as a viral capsid is degraded. Here, we identify the ATPase p97/valosin-containing protein (VCP), an enzyme with segregase and unfoldase activity, as a key player in this process. Depletion or catalytic inhibition of VCP prevents capsid degradation and reduces neutralization. VCP is required concurrently with the proteasome, as addition of inhibitor after proteasomal degradation has no effect. Moreover, our results suggest that it is the challenging nature of virus as a substrate that necessitates involvement of VCP, since intracellularly expressed IgG Fc is degraded in a VCP-independent manner. These results implicate VCP as an important host factor in antiviral immunity.A ntibody neutralization is a key component of the antiviral response and provides protective immunity. Our recent work has shown that neutralization can occur inside cells, in an effector-driven process mediated by tripartite motif-containing 21 (TRIM21). TRIM21, a cytosolic antibody receptor of ultrahigh affinity to IgG Fc (1, 2), is recruited to antibody-bound virus and targets the complex to the proteasome for degradation (3). This process potently neutralizes viral infection and has been termed antibody-dependent intracellular neutralization (ADIN) (4). ADIN is dependent upon the E3 ubiquitin ligase activity of TRIM21 and can be abrogated by chemical inhibition of the proteasome.Although both proteasomal activity and ubiquitination are necessary for ADIN, the exact mechanism of virus degradation is poorly understood. Specifically, it is not clear how the proteasome can degrade a virion, a compact proteinaceous particle much larger than the proteasome itself. The 26S proteasome has a mass of ∼2.5 MDa (5), and the pore through which substrates must pass to access the proteolytic chamber is no greater than 2 nm in diameter (6, 7). In contrast, human adenovirus (AdV), a virus potently neutralized by TRIM21, has a diameter of ∼100 nm and a mass of 150 MDa (8).Although there are ATPases in the 19S regulatory subunit of the 26S proteasome that may unfold substrates and allow them to enter through the pore (5, 6), AdV virions are much larger than any of the proteasome's known cellular substrates. Because ADIN has been shown to be independent of autophagy but dependent on proteasomal degradation (3), we hypothesized that an additional energydependent step of AdV capsid disassembly and/or unfolding might precede proteasomal degradation of the virus.In recent studies, the ATPase p97/VCP of the AAA (ATPases associated with diverse cellular activities) family has been implicated in the proteasomal degradation of certain cytosolic substrates (9-13). VCP is capable of dissociating proteins from large cellular structures such as the endoplasmic reticulum (14), the mitotic spindle (12), the nuclear envelope (15), and chromatin (1...