International Journal of Nanomedicine (Jul 2021)
Glycan Nanostructures of Human Coronaviruses
Abstract
Wanru Guo,1 Harini Lakshminarayanan,2 Alex Rodriguez-Palacios,3– 6 Robert A Salata,7 Kaijin Xu,1 Mohamed S Draz7 1State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Pathology and Molecular Pathology, University of Zurich and University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; 3Division of Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, USA; 4Digestive Health Research Institute, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA; 5Germ-Free and Gut Microbiome Core, Cleveland Digestive Diseases Research Core Center, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA; 6University Hospitals Research and Education Institute, University Hospital Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, OH, USA; 7Department of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, USACorrespondence: Mohamed S Draz; Kaijin Xu Email [email protected]; [email protected]: Human coronaviruses present a substantial global disease burden, causing damage to populations’ health, economy, and social well-being. Glycans are one of the main structural components of all microbes and organismic structures, including viruses—playing multiple essential roles in virus infection and immunity. Studying and understanding virus glycans at the nanoscale provide new insights into the diagnosis and treatment of viruses. Glycan nanostructures are considered potential targets for molecular diagnosis, antiviral therapeutics, and the development of vaccines. This review article describes glycan nanostructures (eg, glycoproteins and glycolipids) that exist in cells, subcellular structures, and microbes. We detail the structure, characterization, synthesis, and functions of virus glycans. Furthermore, we describe the glycan nanostructures of different human coronaviruses, such as human coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E), human coronavirus OC43 (HCoV-OC43), severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV), human coronavirus NL63 (HCoV-NL63), human coronavirus HKU1 (HCoV-HKU1), the Middle East respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and how glycan nanotechnology can be useful to prevent and combat human coronaviruses infections, along with possibilities that are not yet explored.Keywords: glycan, nanotechnology, glycoproteins, glycolipids, coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2, diagnostics, vaccine
