SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus enters the host cells through spike protein-CD147 in an Arf6-dependent manner

The spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its variants is threatening public health around the world. Endocytosis functions as an important way for viral infection, and SARS-CoV-2 bears no exception. However, the specific endocytic mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 remains unknown. In this study, we used endocytic inhibitors to evaluate the role of different endocytic routes in SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus infection and found that the viral infection was associated with caveolar/lipid raft- and cytoskeleton-mediated endocytosis, but independent of the clathrin-mediated endocytosis and macropinocytosis. Meanwhile, the knockdown of CD147 and Rab5a in Vero E6 and Huh-7 cells inhibited SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus infection, and the co-localization of spike protein, CD147, and Rab5a was observed in pseudovirus-infected Vero E6 cells, which was weakened by CD147 silencing, illustrating that SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus entered the host cells via CD147-mediated endocytosis. Additionally, Arf6 silencing markedly inhibited pseudovirus infection in Vero E6 and Huh-7 cells, while little change was observed in CD147 knockout-Vero E6 cells. This finding indicated Arf6-mediated CD147 trafficking plays a vital role in SARS-CoV-2 entry. Taken together, our findings provide new insights into the CD147-Arf6 axis in mediating SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus entry into the host cells, and further suggest that blockade of this pathway seems to be a feasible approach to prevent the SARS-CoV-2 infection clinically.

Automated summary

This study reveals that SARS-CoV-2 enters host cells through CD147-mediated endocytosis, highlighting the potential of blocking this pathway as a preventive approach against SARS-CoV-2 infection.