Functionality of the putative surface glycoproteins of the Wuhan spiny eel influenza virus

Guha Asthagiri Arunkumar, Disha Bhavsar, Tiehai Li, Shirin Strohmeier, Veronika Chromikova, Fatima Amanat, Mehman Bunyatov, Patrick C. Wilson, Ali H. Ellebedy, Geert-Jan Boons, Viviana Simon, Robert P. Vries and Florian Krammer ()
Additional contact information
Guha Asthagiri Arunkumar: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Disha Bhavsar: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Tiehai Li: University of Georgia
Shirin Strohmeier: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Veronika Chromikova: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Fatima Amanat: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Mehman Bunyatov: Utrecht University
Patrick C. Wilson: University of Chicago
Ali H. Ellebedy: Washington University School of Medicine
Geert-Jan Boons: University of Georgia
Viviana Simon: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Robert P. Vries: Utrecht University
Florian Krammer: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract A panel of influenza virus-like sequences were recently documented in fish and amphibians. Of these, the Wuhan spiny eel influenza virus (WSEIV) was found to phylogenetically cluster with influenza B viruses as a sister clade. Influenza B viruses have been documented to circulate only in humans, with certain virus isolates found in harbor seals. It is therefore interesting that a similar virus was potentially found in fish. Here we characterize the putative hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) surface glycoproteins of the WSEIV. Functionally, we show that the WSEIV NA-like protein has sialidase activity comparable to B/Malaysia/2506/2004 influenza B virus NA, making it a bona fide neuraminidase that is sensitive to NA inhibitors. We tested the functionality of the HA by addressing the receptor specificity, stability, preferential airway protease cleavage, and fusogenicity. We show highly specific binding to monosialic ganglioside 2 (GM2) and fusogenicity at a range of different pH conditions. In addition, we found limited antigenic conservation of the WSEIV HA and NA relative to the B/Malaysia/2506/2004 virus HA and NA. In summary, we perform a functional and antigenic characterization of the glycoproteins of WSEIV to assess if it is indeed a bona fide influenza virus potentially circulating in ray-finned fish.

Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-26409-2 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-26409-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26409-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().