Putative dengue virus receptors from mosquito cells

Dengue viruses are arthropod-borne, single-stranded RNA viruses. Aëdes aegypti and Aëdes albopictus are the principal vectors. In order to understand the molecular basis of dengue virus infections we explored the biochemical identity of dengue-2 (DEN-2) virus receptors in the Aëdes albopictus-derived cell line C6/36. We show here that DEN-2 interacts with two major polypeptides of 80 and 67 kDa. Polyclonal anti-C6/36 membrane antibodies block DEN-2 binding to intact C6/36 monolayers as well as to membrane extracts. Our results strongly suggest that the identified polypeptides are part of the DEN-2 receptors.