Led by Prof. Paul Becher, a team of researchers has used cell cultures to observe the mechanisms by which classical swine fever virus, as well as the atypical porcine pestivirus, invade their host cells.

In their study, they used genetically engineered cells and exposed them to two different pestiviruses. Their studies on virus entry revealed that pestiviruses, depending on the species, evidently use quite different target structures on the cell surface to enter the host cell. While in the case of the atypical porcine pestivirus, a known protein called CD46 is important for a virus entry, it does not play a role in the classical swine pestivirus, the authors write.

Further studies are now pending.

Cagatay G, Antos A, Suckstorff O, Isken O, Tautz N, Becher P, Postel A (2021). Porcine complement regulatory protein CD46 is a major receptor for atypical porcine pestivirus but not for classical swine fever virus, Journal of Virology, DOI 10.1128/JVI.02186-20.

Source:
http://www.tiho-hannover.de/pressemitteilungen