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Journal of Virology, September 2005, p. 11533-11536, Vol. 79, No. 17
0022-538X/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.79.17.11533-11536.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Department of Microbiology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave Levy Place, Box 1124, New York, New York 10029,1 Department of Molecular Biology,2 Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, California 92037,3 Department of Molecular Pathology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rockville, Maryland 20850,4 Influenza Branch, Division of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia 303335
Received 19 April 2005/ Accepted 15 June 2005
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2,6 sialic acid (human) cellular receptor, whereas the A/New York/1/18 HA, which differs by only one amino acid, binds both the
2,6 and the
2,3 sialic acid (avian) cellular receptors. Compared to the conserved consensus sequence in the receptor binding site of avian HAs, only a single amino acid at position 190 was changed in the A/New York/1/18 HA. Mutation of this single amino acid back to the avian consensus resulted in a preference for the avian receptor. |
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2,6 linkage (SA
2,6Gal), whereas avian viruses mostly bind to N-acetylsialic acid attached to galactose with an
2,3 linkage (SA
2,3Gal) (2, 14-16, 25). The receptor binding specificity of HA has been implicated in determining the host range of a given influenza virus. In agreement with this hypothesis, human tracheal epithelium was shown to contain mostly SA
2,6Gal (3), whereas duck gut epithelium contains mostly SA
2,3Gal (9). In addition, as viruses adapt to a new host, the receptor binding can become more restricted to one type of sialic acid linkage (5, 13, 17, 25). These adaptations suggest the existence of selective pressure on receptor utilization depending on the host animal. However, it should be noted that all avian and human cells do not exclusively contain SA
2,3Gal and SA
2,6Gal, respectively. For example, chicken lung and intestinal epithelial cells contain both types of sialic acid linkages (6).
The 1918 influenza pandemic killed an estimated 50 million people, and the origin of this virulent strain continues to be of interest (10). One hypothesis suggests that the virus crossed the species barrier from birds to humans in part due to critical mutations in the HA (H1 subtype) that changed the binding preference from the avian sialic acid (
2,3) linkage to the human (
2,6) form (1, 12, 23). Six residues are conserved in the HA1 domains of most avian H1 HAs, implicating these residues in the ability to bind to the avian SA
2,3Gal receptor (7, 14). Comparison of the avian HA consensus sequence with HA sequences from the 1918 influenza virus strains shows that only one or two of these conserved residues, depending on the viral isolate, are different (Table 1) (23, 24). An earlier study of H1 HAs from swine influenza viruses shows that these amino acids, 190 and 225, are important for determining the receptor binding specificity (13). Here, we report the receptor binding capability of the A/South Carolina/1/18 virus HA and the A/New York/1/18 virus HA (23), which differ by one amino acid, and assess the importance of the amino acids at positions 190 and 225 in this specificity (amino acid residues have H3 numbering) (28).
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TABLE 1. Critical amino acids for the receptor binding specificity of the influenza HAa
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2,6Gal or SA
2,3Gal, as previously described (19, 22). All of the sialic acid was removed from 100 µl of 10% CRBCs using 50 mU Vibrio cholerae neuraminidase (VCNA; Roche) at 37°C for 1 h. Removal of sialic acid was confirmed by loss of hemagglutination of virus-like particles (VLPs) by chicken red blood cells (Fig. 2A). Subsequently, resialylation was performed using 0.5 mU
2,3-(N)-sialyltransferase (Calbiochem) or 2.5 mU
2,6-(N)-sialyltransferase (Calbiochem) and 1.5 mM CMP-sialic acid (Sigma) at 37°C in 50 µl for 30 min or in 125 µl for 60 min, respectively. Confirmation of successful resialylation was assayed using hemagglutination of well-defined human and avian viruses (data not shown). The A/South Carolina/1/18 HA gene was subcloned into the mammalian expression vector pCAGGS (23, 27). The HA corresponding to A/New York/1/18 virus was made by mutation of A716G in the A/South Carolina/1/18 HA that coded for a D225G mutation in the protein (Table 1). Human embryonic kidney cells (293T) were transfected with the A/South Carolina/1/18 HA or the A/New York/1/18 HA using Lipofectamine 2000 (Invitrogen). After 24 h, the 293T cells were treated with 5 mU VCNA to remove sialic acids on the HA which could interfere with the assay, and cells were incubated with 0.5% CRBCs for 30 min at 4°C (20). After a thorough washing, the remaining red blood cells were lysed in 150 µl 20 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5), 177 mM NH4Cl for 30 min at 25°C. Absorbance of released hemoglobin at 540 nm was used to quantify the amount of red blood cells bound (18). Controls include HAs cloned from a human H3 virus, A/Moscow/10/99, and an avian H3 virus, A/duck/Ukraine/1/63.
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FIG. 2. (A) Hemagglutination assay of virus-like particles (VLPs) using unmodified (left) and VCNA-treated CRBCs (right). In both panels the top row corresponds to two hemagglutination units and the bottom row is a 1:2 dilution. (B) Hemagglutination assay of virus-like particles (VLPs) using CRBCs. The left panel shows SA 2,3Gal-resialylated CRBCs hemagglutinate VLPs expressing the A/New York/1/18 and the 1918 "avian" HAs but not A/South Carolina/1/18 HA. The right panel shows SA 2,6Gal-resialylated CRBCs hemagglutinate VLPs expressing the A/South Carolina/1/18 and A/New York/1/18 HAs but not 1918 "avian" HA. The amount of VLPs expressing the respective HAs was normalized with untreated CRBCs. In both panels the top row corresponds to two hemagglutination units and the bottom row is a 1:2 dilution. Production of SA 2,3Gal CRBCs was carried out in a 10% suspension with 0.5 mU of 2,3-(N)-sialyltransferase (Calbiochem) using 1.5 mM CMP-sialic acid in 50 µl for 2 h at 37°C. Production of SA 2,6Gal CRBCs was carried out in a 10% suspension with 1.0 mU of 2,6-(N)-sialyltransferase using 1.5 mM CMP-sialic acid in 125 µl for 2 h at 37°C.
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2,3- and
2,6-linked sialic acid (19). The A/duck/Ukraine/1/63 virus binds preferentially to SA
2,3Gal, whereas the human virus, A/Moscow/10/99, preferentially binds to the SA
2,6Gal-resialylated CRBCs (Fig. 1A). Like the A/Moscow/10/99 HA, the HA from A/South Carolina/1/18 virus binds better to SA
2,6Gal-resialylated CRBCs than to SA
2,3Gal-resialylated CRBCs. The receptor binding specificity of the A/South Carolina/1/18 HA for SA
2,6Gal is in agreement with a previous report (11). However, the A/New York/1/18 HA which differs from the A/South Carolina/1/18 HA only at position 225 (G225 versus D225) binds equally well to SA
2,6Gal- and SA
2,3Gal-resialylated CRBCs. The reduced binding to the resialylated CRBCs by all HA constructs in comparison to unmodified blood cells is probably due to the inability to completely replace the density of sialic acid on red blood cells with the purified enzymes (19).
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FIG. 1. (A) Release of hemoglobin measured by absorbance at 540 nm of untreated and resialylated CRBCs lysed after hemadsorption on 293T cells transfected with 3 µg each of plasmids expressing A/duck/Ukraine/1/63 HA, A/Moscow/10/99 HA, A/South Carolina/1/18 HA, A/New York/1/18 HA, or an HA containing a D190E mutation in the A/New York/1/18 HA ("avian" HA). Each bar represents the average of three separate experiments. Values are reported as percent maximal absorbance. CRBCs were resialylated with 2,3 or 2,6 sialic acid as described in the text. (B) Representative Western blot of 293T cells transfected with 3 µg pCAGGS 1918 HA constructs. The blot was probed with an anti-1918 HA monoclonal antibody (kindly provided by Tom Moran) and an anti-actin monoclonal antibody (Sigma). Total cellular protein of 5 µg, 2.5 µg, or 1.25 µg was loaded as indicated. Quantification of three Western blots was performed using the public domain NIH Image program, ImageJ. HA expression was normalized to actin. AB, absorbance; GFP, green fluorescent protein.
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2,6Gal-resialylated CRBCs, as shown in Fig. 1A. The 1918 "avian" HA bound approximately 70% less SA
2,6Gal-resialylated CRBCs than the A/South Carolina/1/18 HA and had a binding profile most similar to that of the avian A/duck/Ukraine/1/63 HA. We do not believe this was solely due to reduced protein expression or a nonfunctional mutant, because the 1918 "avian" HA bound well to unmodified CRBCs and to SA
2,3Gal-resialylated CRBCs. In addition, quantification by Western blot showed a less than 1.3-fold difference in protein expression (Fig. 1B).
Virus-like particles (VLPs) afforded another method for studying the receptor binding properties of the 1918 HA. Production of VLPs was carried out by transfection of 293T cells with 1 µg each of the pCAGGS plasmid expressing B/Yamagata/1/73 neuraminidase, matrix, and nonstructural protein 1 with A/New York/1/18 HA, A/South Carolina/1/18 HA, or 1918 "avian" HA (21). The B/Yamagata/1/73 viral proteins were used because they gave the highest titer for released VLPs. The VLPs produced equal hemagglutination units in assays with untreated CRBCs. In hemagglutination assays with
2,3Gal-resialylated CRBCs, the A/New York/1/18 HA and the 1918 "avian" HA VLPs hemagglutinated the CRBCs (Fig. 2B, left panel), whereas only the A/New York/1/18 HA and A/South Carolina/1/18 HA VLPs hemagglutinated the
2,6Gal-resialylated CRBCs (Fig. 2B, right panel). These data emphasize the fact that the consensus 1918 "avian" HA preferentially binds to
2,3Gal-resialylated CRBCs, whereas the A/South Carolina/1/18 HA has a low affinity for these CRBCs. Clearly, these data show the importance of positions 190 and 225 in the 1918 HA in determining its receptor binding specificity.
In conclusion, using hemadsorption and hemagglutination assays, we show that the HA surface glycoprotein from the influenza virus causing the 1918 pandemic preferentially binds SA
2,6Gal sialic acid corresponding to the human receptor and that one strain, A/New York/1/18, also binds the SA
2,3Gal sialic acid of the avian receptor. This experimentally confirms the prediction made by Reid et al. based on sequence comparisons of the 1918 HA sequence with other HAs (24). Only a single amino acid change in the HA (D190E) from the A/New York/1/18 strain to the avian consensus sequence is required to reduce binding to the human receptor. Two structures of the 1918 HA (cleaved [HA1/HA2] and uncleaved [HA0]) were recently determined by X-ray crystallography (8, 26). The structure of the 1918 HA in complex with receptor analogs has not yet been solved, but the structure of a similar viral HA from A/swine/Iowa/30, in complex with both the avian and human receptor analogs, is available (8). By analogy to the crystal structure of the human receptor in complex with the swine HA, the authors propose that the aspartic acid at position 190 in the 1918 influenza HA makes contacts with the GlcNAc and galactose of the SA
2,6Gal sugar moiety stabilizing the receptor-HA interaction. Our results support this notion and indicate that the presence of the larger amino acid, glutamate, in the avian HA receptor-binding pocket may be too bulky to accommodate the
2,6 sugar moiety.
Although sequence information for an avian H1 influenza virus that may have been the direct precursor of the 1918 pandemic strain does not exist, partial sequence of an avian H1 subtype HA from 1917 shows conservation over the receptor binding domain (4). The present work suggests that minimal changes in the receptor binding domain of an avian HA may have been enough to broaden its binding targets to include the major sialic acid receptor expressed on human respiratory epithelium.
2,6 sialyltransferase. This work was partially supported by NIAID grant AI058113-01 (I.A.W., A.G.-S., C.F.B., J.K.T., P.P.). I.A.W. and J.S. were supported in part by NIGMS grant GM062116-04. This work was supported in part by NIAID grant 5R01AI050619-04 to J.K.T. D.Z. was supported by NIH training grant A1007647.
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