Many rhinovirus serotypes share the same cellular receptor.

Twenty-four human rhinovirus serotypes were grown and purified by centrifugation in metrizamide density gradients. These preparations had a lower buoyant density (1.24 g/cm3) and higher specific infectivities (1:24 to 1:240) than did rhinoviruses described previously (E. J. Stott and R. J. Killington, Annu. Rev. Microbiol. 26:503-524, 1972). Binding conditions in which the unique cellular receptors for virus attachment were saturated were determined for each serotype. Competition binding assays between pairs of serotypes allowed 20 of the 24 serotypes to be assigned to the same cellular receptor. The remaining four serotypes appeared to attach to a different cellular receptor. Since most serotypes were chosen for study at random, it seems likely that many of the yet unstudied rhinoviruses will share this common cellular receptor.