Makoto Takeda

Lipid raft microdomains are enriched in sphingomyelin and cholesterol and function as platforms for signal transduction and as the site of budding of several enveloped viruses, including influenza virus. The influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) glycoprotein, which mediates both viral-cell attachment and membrane fusion, associates intrinsically with lipid rafts. Residues in the HA transmembrane (TM) domain are important for raft association as sequence substitutions in the HA TM domain ablate HA a

The amantadine-sensitive ion channel activity of influenza A virus M2 protein was discovered through understanding the two steps in the virus life cycle that are inhibited by the antiviral drug amantadine: virus uncoating in endosomes and M2 protein-mediated equilibration of the intralumenal pH of the trans Golgi network. Recently it was reported that influenza virus can undergo multiple cycles of replication without M2 ion channel activity (T. Watanabe, S. Watanabe, H. Ito, H. Kida, and Y. Kawa

Spike (S) protein cleavage is a crucial step in coronavirus infection. In this review, this process is discussed, with particular focus on the novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Compared with influenza virus and paramyxovirus membrane fusion proteins, the cleavage activation mechanism of coronavirus S protein is much more complex. The S protein has two cleavage sites (S1/S2 and S2'), and the cleavage motif for furin protease at the S1/S2 site that re

Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) is a major causative agent of severe bronchiolitis and pneumonia. Its fusion (F) protein must be cleaved by host proteases to cause membrane fusion, a critical step for virus infection. By generating Vero cells constitutively expressing the transmembrane serine protease TMPRSS2 and green fluorescent protein-expressing recombinant HMPV, we show that TMPRSS2, which is expressed in the human lung epithelium, cleaves the HMPV F protein efficiently and supports HMPV multi

Reverse genetics technology so far established for measles virus (MeV) is based on the Edmonston strain, which was isolated several decades ago, has been passaged in nonlymphoid cell lines, and is no longer pathogenic in monkey models. On the other hand, MeVs isolated and passaged in the Epstein-Barr virus-transformed marmoset B-lymphoblastoid cell line B95a would retain their original pathogenicity (F. Kobune et al., J. Virol. 64:700-705, 1990). Here we have developed MeV reverse genetics syste

Measles is still a major cause of mortality mainly in developing countries. The causative agent, measles virus (MeV), is an enveloped virus having a nonsegmented negative-sense RNA genome, and belongs to the genus Morbillivirus of the family Paramyxoviridae. One feature of the moribillivirus genomes is that the M and F genes have long untranslated regions (UTRs). The M and F mRNAs of MeV have 426-nucleotide-long 3' and 583-nucleotide-long 5' UTRs, respectively. Though these long UTRs occupy as m

Measles is one of the most contagious human infectious diseases and remains a major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality worldwide. The signaling lymphocyte activation molecule (SLAM), also called CD150, is a cellular receptor for measles virus (MV), presumably accounting for its tropism for immune cells and its immunosuppressive properties. On the other hand, pathological studies have shown that MV also infects epithelial cells at a later stage of infection, although its mechanism has so

In cultured cells, SARS-CoV-2 infects cells via multiple pathways using different host proteases. Recent studies have shown that the furin and TMPRSS2 (furin/TMPRSS2)-dependent pathway plays a minor role in infection of the Omicron variant. Here, we confirm that Omicron uses the furin/TMPRSS2-dependent pathway inefficiently and enters cells mainly using the cathepsin-dependent endocytosis pathway in TMPRSS2-expressing VeroE6/TMPRSS2 and Calu-3 cells. This is the case despite efficient cleavage o

Measles virus (MV) isolated in B95a cells, a marmoset B-cell line, retains full pathogenicity for cynomolgus monkeys, while its derivative obtained by adaptation to the growth in Vero cells, a monkey kidney cell line, loses the pathogenic potential (F. Kobune, H. Sakata, and A. Sugiura, J. Virol. 64:700-705, 1990). Here, we show with a pair of strains, a fresh isolate (9301B) in B95a cells and its Vero cell-adapted form (9301V), that the in vivo attenuation parallels the decrease of replication

Measles virus (MV) propagates mainly in lymphoid organs throughout the body and produces syncytia by using signaling lymphocyte activation molecule (SLAM) as a receptor. MV also spreads in SLAM-negative epithelial tissues by unknown mechanisms. Ubiquitously expressed CD46 functions as another receptor for vaccine strains of MV but not for wild-type strains. We here show that MV grows and produces syncytia efficiently in a human lung adenocarcinoma cell line via a SLAM- and CD46-independent mecha

Clinical isolates of measles virus (MV) use signaling lymphocyte activation molecule (SLAM) as a cellular receptor, whereas vaccine and laboratory strains may utilize the ubiquitously expressed CD46 as an additional receptor. MVs also infect, albeit inefficiently, SLAM(-) cells, via a SLAM- and CD46-independent pathway. Our previous study with recombinant chimeric viruses revealed that not only the receptor-binding hemagglutinin (H) but also the matrix (M) protein of the Edmonston vaccine strain