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JVI: Structure of influenza virus N7: the last piece of the neuraminidase ?jigsaw? puzzle

tetano

Editor, Senior Moderator
Published ahead of print 4 June 2014, doi: 10.1128/JVI.00805-14 JVI.00805-14


Structure of influenza virus N7: the last piece of the neuraminidase ?jigsaw? puzzle

Xiaoman Sun1,2,
Qing Li1,3,
Yan Wu1,
Mingyang Wang1,
Yue Liu1,
Jianxun Qi1,
Christopher J. Vavricka1,4 and
George F. Gao1,2,4,5*

1CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
2University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
3School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, Anhui Province, China.
4Research Network of Immunity and Health (RNIH), Beijing Institutes of Life Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
5Office of Director-General, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), Beijing 102206, China.

ABSTRACT

There are nine subtypes of influenza A virus neuraminidase (NA) (N1-N9). In addition, influenza B also contains NA and there are two influenza NA-like molecules, N10 and N11, which were recently identified from bats. Crystal structures for all of these proteins have been solved with exception to N7 and there is no published report of N6, though a structure has been deposited. Here, we present the N7 and N6 structures at 2.1 ? and 1.8 ?, respectively. Structural comparison of all NA subtypes shows that both N7 and N6 highly resemble typical group 2 NA structures with some special characteristics, including an additional cavity adjacent to their active sites formed by novel 340-loop conformations. Comparative analysis also revealed new structural insights into the N-glycosylation, calcium binding and second sialic acid binding site of influenza NA. This comprehensive study is critical for understanding the complexity of the most successful influenza drug target and for the structure-based design of novel influenza inhibitors.

Importance Influenza viruses impose a great burden on society, by the human-adapted seasonal types, as well as by variants that occasionally jump from the avian-reservoir to infect humans. The surface glycoprotein neuraminidase (NA) is essential for the propagation of the virus and currently the most successfully drug-targeted molecule. Therefore, the structural and functional analysis of NA is critical for the prevention and control of influenza infections. There are nine subtypes of influenza A virus NA (N1-N9). In addition, influenza B also contains NA and there are two influenza NA-like molecules, N10 and N11, which were recently identified in bats. Crystal structures for all of these proteins have been solved and reported with the exception of N7 and N6. The structural analysis of influenza virus N7 and N6 presented in this study therefore complete the puzzle and add to a comprehensive understanding of influenza virus NA.

http://jvi.asm.org/content/early/2014/05/28/JVI.00805-14.abstract
 
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