C-Terminal Amino Acids 471-507 of Avian Hepatitis E Virus Capsid Protein Are Crucial for Binding to Avian and Human Cells

The infection of chickens with avian Hepatitis E virus (avian HEV) can be asymptomatic or induces clinical signs characterized by increased mortality and decreased egg production in adult birds. Due to the lack of an efficient cell culture system for avian HEV, the interaction between virus and host cells is still barely understood. In this study, four truncated avian HEV capsid proteins (ORF2-1 – ORF2-4) with an identical 338aa deletion at the N-terminus and gradual deletions from 0, 42, 99 and 136aa at the C-terminus, respectively, were expressed and used to map the possible binding site within avian HEV capsid protein. Results from the binding assay showed that three truncated capsid proteins attached to avian LMH cells, but did not penetrate into cells. However, the shortest construct, ORF2-4, lost the capability of binding to cells suggesting that the presence of amino acids 471 to 507 of the capsid protein is crucial for the attachment. The construct ORF2-3 (aa339-507) was used to study the potential binding of avian HEV capsid protein to human and other avian species. It could be demonstrated that ORF2-3 was capable of binding to QT-35 cells from Japanese quail and human HepG2 cells but failed to bind to P815 cells. Additionally, chicken serum raised against ORF2-3 successfully blocked the binding to LMH cells. Treatment with heparin sodium salt or sodium chlorate significantly reduced binding of ORF2-3 to LMH cells. However, heparinase II treatment of LMH cells had no effect on binding of the ORF2-3 construct, suggesting a possible distinct attachment mechanism of avian as compared to human HEV. For the first time, interactions between avian HEV capsid protein and host cells were investigated demonstrating that aa471 to 507 of the capsid protein are needed to facilitate interaction with different kind of cells from different species.