A Perspective on the Structural and Functional Constraints for Immune Evasion: Insights from Influenza Virus.

J Mol Biol

Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA; The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA. Electronic address:

Published: August 2017

Influenza virus evolves rapidly to constantly escape from natural immunity. Most humoral immune responses to influenza virus target the hemagglutinin (HA) glycoprotein, which is the major antigen on the surface of the virus. The HA is composed of a globular head domain for receptor binding and a stem domain for membrane fusion. The major antigenic sites of HA are located in the globular head subdomain, which is highly tolerant of amino acid substitutions and continual addition of glycosylation sites. Nonetheless, the evolution of the receptor-binding site and the stem region on HA is severely constrained by their functional roles in engaging the host receptor and in mediating membrane fusion, respectively. Here, we review how broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) exploit these evolutionary constraints to protect against diverse influenza strains. We also discuss the emerging role of other epitopes that are conserved only in subsets of viruses. This rapidly increasing knowledge of the evolutionary biology, immunology, structural biology, and virology of influenza virus is invaluable for development and design of more universal influenza vaccines and novel therapeutics.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5573227PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2017.06.015DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

influenza virus
16
globular head
8
membrane fusion
8
influenza
6
virus
5
perspective structural
4
structural functional
4
functional constraints
4
constraints immune
4
immune evasion
4

Similar Publications

During the 2023-2024 winter, 11 high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks caused by clade 2.3.4.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A historical perspective of more than one hundred years of influenza surveillance in New York State demonstrates the progression from anecdotes and case counts to next-generation sequencing and electronic database management, greatly improving pandemic preparedness and response. Here, we determined if influenza virologic surveillance at the New York State public health laboratory (NYS PHL) tests sufficient specimen numbers within preferred confidence limits to assess situational awareness and detect novel viruses that pose a pandemic risk. To this end, we analyzed retrospective electronic data on laboratory test results for the influenza seasons 1997-1998 to 2021-2022 according to sample sizes recommended in the Influenza Virologic Surveillance Right Size Roadmap issued by the Association of Public Health Laboratories and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Understanding the interference patterns of respiratory viruses could be important for shedding light on potential strategies to combat these human infectious agents.

Objective: To investigate the possible interactions between adenovirus type 2 (AdV2), severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and influenza A/H1N1 pandemic (H1N1pdm09) using the A549 cell line.

Methods: Single infections, co-infections, and superinfections (at 3 and 24 h after the first virus infection) were performed by varying the multiplicity of infection (MOI).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Metformin, a widely used antidiabetic medication, has emerged as a promising broad-spectrum antiviral agent due to its ability to modulate cellular pathways essential for viral replication. By activating AMPK, metformin depletes cellular energy reserves that viruses rely on, effectively limiting the replication of pathogens such as influenza, HIV, SARS-CoV-2, HBV, and HCV. Its role in inhibiting the mTOR pathway, crucial for viral protein synthesis and reactivation, is particularly significant in managing infections caused by HIV, CMV, and EBV.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Setting up a global SARS-CoV-2 surveillance system requires an understanding of how virus isolation and propagation practices, use of animal or human sera, and different neutralisation assay platforms influence assessment of SARS-CoV-2 antigenicity. In this study, with the contribution of 15 independent laboratories across all WHO regions, we carried out a controlled analysis of neutralisation assay platforms using the first WHO International Standard for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (source: NIBSC). Live virus isolates (source: WHO BioHub or individual labs) or spike plasmids (individual labs) for pseudovirus production were used to perform neutralisation assays using the same serum panels.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!