Receptor Specificities of Human Respiroviruses

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Abstract
Through their hemagglutinin-neuraminidase glycoprotein, parainfluenza viruses bind to sialic acid-containing glycoconjugates to initiate infection. Although the virus-receptor interaction is a key factor of infection, the exact nature of the receptors that human parainfluenza viruses recognize has not been determined. We evaluated the abilities of human parainfluenza virus types 1 (hPIV-1) and 3 (hPIV-3) to bind to different types of gangliosides. Both hPIV-1 and hPIV-3 preferentially bound to neolacto-series gangliosides containing a terminal N-acetylneuraminic acid (NeuAc) linked toN-acetyllactosamine (Galβ1-4GlcNAc) by the α2-3 linkage (NeuAcα2-3Galβ1-4GlcNAc). Unlike hPIV-1, hPIV-3 bound to gangliosides with a terminal NeuAc linked to Galβ1-4GlcNAc through an α2-6 linkage (NeuAcα2-6Galβ1-4GlcNAc) or to gangliosides with a different sialic acid, N-glycolylneuraminic acid (NeuGc), linked to Galβ1-4GlcNAc (NeuGcα2-3Galβ1-4GlcNAc). These results indicate that the molecular species of glycoconjugate that hPIV-1 recognizes are more limited than those recognized by hPIV-3. Further analysis using purified gangliosides revealed that the oligosaccharide core structure is also an important element for binding. Gangliosides that contain branchedN-acetyllactosaminoglycans in their core structure showed higher avidity than those without them. Agglutination of human, cow, and guinea pig erythrocytes but not equine erythrocytes by hPIV-1 and hPIV-3 correlated well with the presence or the absence of sialic acid-linked branched N-acetyllactosaminoglycans on the cell surface. Finally, NeuAcα2-3I, which bound to both viruses, inhibited virus infection of Lewis lung carcinoma-monkey kidney cells in a dose-dependent manner. We conclude that hPIV-1 and hPIV-3 preferentially recognize oligosaccharides containing branchedN-acetyllactosaminoglycans with terminal NeuAcα2-3Gal as receptors and that hPIV-3 also recognizes NeuAcα2-6Gal- or NeuGcα2-3Gal-containing receptors. These findings provide important information that can be used to develop inhibitors that prevent human parainfluenza virus infection.