Discovery of a proteinaceous cellular receptor for a norovirus

Abstract

New insights into norovirus entry There's no escaping norovirus when you have it—the symptoms from this gastroenteritis-causing virus, though brief, are often debilitating. Preventing infections will rely on improving our understanding of how norovirus enters host cells. Orchard et al. show that the entry of murine norovirus (MNoV) into host cells requires a protein called CD300lf. In cell culture, mouse cells needed to express CD300lf in order for MNoV binding, entry, and replication to occur. Deleting the gene encoding CD300lf in mice protected them against MNoV infection. Human cells expressing CD300lf allowed MNoV to break the species barrier, a finding that may lead to new insights into the infectivity of this virus. Science , this issue p. 933