PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Ke Liu AU - Changguang Xiao AU - Shumin Xi AU - Muddassar hameed AU - Abdul Wahaab AU - Donghua Shao AU - Zongjie Li AU - Beibei Li AU - Jianchao Wei AU - Yafeng Qiu AU - Denian Miao AU - Huaimin Zhu AU - Zhiyong Ma TI - Mosquito defensins enhance Japanese encephalitis virus infection by facilitating virus adsorption and entry within mosquito AID - 10.1101/2020.04.28.065904 DP - 2020 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 2020.04.28.065904 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/04/28/2020.04.28.065904.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/04/28/2020.04.28.065904.full AB - Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a viral zoonosis which can cause viral encephalitis, death and disability. Culex is the main vector of JEV, but little is known about JEV transmission by this kind of mosquito. Here, we found that mosquito defensin facilitated the adsorption of JEV on target cells via both direct and indirect pathways. Mosquito defensin bound the ED III domain of viral E protein and directly mediated efficient virus adsorption on the target cell surface, Lipoprotein receptor-related protein 2 expressed on the cell surface is the receptor affecting defensin dependent adsorption. Mosquito defensin also indirectly down-regulated the expression of an antiviral protein, HSC70B. As a result, mosquitos defensin enhances JEV infection in salivary gland while increasing the possibility of viral transmission by mosquito. These findings demonstrate that the novel effects of mosquito defensin in JEV infection and the mechanisms through which the virus exploits mosquito defensin for infection and transmission.