1. Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Department of Medicine, and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-7295, USA

Correspondence to: Eng-Shang Huang^1,2,3 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to E.-S.H. (Email: eshuang@med.unc.edu).

Abstract

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a widespread opportunistic herpesvirus that causes severe and fatal diseases in immune-compromised individuals, including organ transplant recipients and individuals with AIDS¹. It is also a leading cause of virus-associated birth defects and is associated with atherosclerosis and coronary restenosis^{1, 2, 3}. HCMV initiates infection and intracellular signalling by binding to its cognate cellular receptors^{4, 5} and by activating several signalling pathways including those mediated by mitogen-activated protein kinase^{5, 6, 7}, phosphatidylinositol-3-OH kinase⁸, interferons^{5, 9}, and G proteins¹⁰. But a cellular receptor responsible for viral entry and HCMV-induced signalling has yet to be identified. Here we show that HCMV infects cells by interacting with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and inducing signalling. Transfecting EGFR-negative cells with an EGFR complementary DNA renders non-susceptible cells susceptible to HCMV. Ligand displacement and crosslinking analyses show that HCMV interacts with EGFR through gB, its principal envelope glycoprotein. gB preferentially binds EGFR and EGFR–ErbB3 oligomeric molecules in Chinese hamster ovary cells transfected with erbB family cDNAs. Taken together, these data indicate that EGFR is a necessary component for HCMV-triggered signalling and viral entry.