Relevance of Host Cell Surface Glycan Structure for Cell Specificity of Influenza A Viruses
Markus Kastner,
Andreas Karner,
Rong Zhu,
Qiang Huang,
Andreas Geissner,
Anne Sadewasser,
Markus Lesch,
Xenia Wörmann,
Alexander Karlas,
Peter H. Seeberger,
Thorsten Wolff,
Peter Hinterdorfer,
Andreas Herrmann,
Christian Sieben
Affiliations
Markus Kastner
Institute for Biophysics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, 4020 Linz, Austria
Andreas Karner
Institute for Biophysics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, 4020 Linz, Austria
Rong Zhu
Institute for Biophysics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, 4020 Linz, Austria
Qiang Huang
State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Industrial Microorganisms, MOE Engineering Research Center of Gene Technology, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China
Andreas Geissner
Department for Biomolecular Systems, Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
Anne Sadewasser
Division of Influenza and other Respiratory Viruses, Robert Koch-Institute, 13353 Berlin, Germany
Markus Lesch
Molecular Biology Department, Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, 10117 Berlin, Germany
Xenia Wörmann
Molecular Biology Department, Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, 10117 Berlin, Germany
Alexander Karlas
Molecular Biology Department, Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, 10117 Berlin, Germany
Peter H. Seeberger
Department for Biomolecular Systems, Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
Thorsten Wolff
Division of Influenza and other Respiratory Viruses, Robert Koch-Institute, 13353 Berlin, Germany
Peter Hinterdorfer
Institute for Biophysics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, 4020 Linz, Austria
Andreas Herrmann
Institut für Chemie und Biochemie, Freie Universität Berlin, Altensteinstraße 23a, 14195 Berlin, Germany
Christian Sieben
Nanoscale Infection Biology Group, Department of Cell Biology, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, 38124 Braunschweig, Germany
Influenza A viruses (IAVs) initiate infection via binding of the viral hemagglutinin (HA) to sialylated glycans on host cells. HA’s receptor specificity towards individual glycans is well studied and clearly critical for virus infection, but the contribution of the highly heterogeneous and complex glycocalyx to virus–cell adhesion remains elusive. Here, we use two complementary methods, glycan arrays and single-virus force spectroscopy (SVFS), to compare influenza virus receptor specificity with virus binding to live cells. Unexpectedly, we found that HA’s receptor binding preference does not necessarily reflect virus–cell specificity. We propose SVFS as a tool to elucidate the cell binding preference of IAVs, thereby including the complex environment of sialylated receptors within the plasma membrane of living cells.
