Apparent cooperativity between human CMV virions introduces errors in conventional methods of calculating multiplicity of infection.

ABSTRACT: Whether infection of cells by individual virions occurs randomly or if there is some form(s) of competition or cooperativity between individual virions remains largely unknown for most virus-cell associations. Here we studied cooperativity/competition for three different strains of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) on two different cell types (fibroblasts and epithelial cells). By titrating viral inocula concentrations in small steps over several orders of magnitude, and by using flow cytometry to precisely measure frequency of infected cells, we found that for most virus-cell associations, the frequency of cell infection increases faster than linear with an increasing inoculum concentration, indicating cooperativity between individual infecting virions. Mathematical modeling suggests th

SUBMITTER: Peterson C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12045349 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature