TABLE 2.

Pathogens exploiting the ECM for invasion.

Pathogen	ECM molecule(s) bound	Infection strategy
S. aureus	Laminin, collagen I, IV, VI, elastin, FN Singh et al., 2012	Tissue invasion and infection
Candida albicans	Laminin, collagen I, IV, FN Singh et al., 2012	Tissue attachment and enrichment
HPV-11	Laminin 5 Culp et al., 2006	Exploits interaction of α6-integrin with laminin 5 for keratinocyte invasion
HPV-16	HSPG, laminin 5, heparan sulfate Sapp and Bienkowska-Haba, 2009; DiGiuseppe et al., 2017	Used for attachment to BM, interstitial matrix or cell membranes prior to infection, brings virus in close vicinity of target cell that interacts with matrix
Polyomavirus	Laminin 5, collagen IV at BM Singh et al., 2012	Large T-antigen on virus binds to BM proteins
Merkel cell polyomavirus	Sulfated GAGs i.e., heparan sulfate; Matrosovich et al., 2013; Becker et al., 2019	Binding used to attach to sialic acid receptors on fibroblasts for cell invasion
HSV family	HSPG on cell surface Hadigal et al., 2020	Used for initial attachment before invasion
Coronavirus	HSPG Lang et al., 2011; Milewska et al., 2014; Owczarek et al., 2018	Enrichment of viruses around cells to enhance infection

The list shown is not exhaustive. S. aureus, Staphylococcus aureus; FN, fibronectin; HPV, human papillomavirus; HSV, herpes simplex virus; HSPG, heparan sulfate proteoglycan; GAG, galactosaminoglycan/glycosaminoglycan; BM, basement membrane.