Japanese Encephalitis virus (JEV) is a mosquito borne flavivirus that infects macrophages, monocytes and dendritic cells (DCs) during in vivo replication. The C-type lectins DC-SIGN and DC-SIGNR have been reported to act as cell attachment factors for diverse array of pathogens. In this study, the effect of these lectins on JEV infection was investigated after the generation of 293T-SIGN (R) cell lines expressing DC-SIGN and DC-SIGNR receptors. It was observed that only DC-SIGN but not the DC-SIGNR can act as a viral attachment factor in case of JEV infection. The infection to cells expressing DC-SIGN was efficiently blocked by anti-DC-SIGN and mannan molecules. It was also found that insect derived JEV has higher affinity for DC-SIGN as compare to the mammalian derived JEV. These results initially suggest that DC-SIGN could act as viral attachment receptors (VAR) for JEV and enhance JEV infection.

Key words: DC-SIGN, DC-SIGNR, Japanese Encephalitis virus