Journal
VIROLOGY JOURNAL
Volume 6, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
BMC
DOI: 10.1186/1743-422X-6-39
Keywords
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Funding
- National Institutes of Health [AI 059570, CA 092459]
- University of Illinois at Chicago Fellowship
- Ministry of Science & Technology, China [2004BA519A29, 2005CB523001]
- National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [30599434, 30525010]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [30270308, 30599432]
- Ministry of Science and Technology of China [2006CB910103, 2007CB914800]
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Background: Avian influenza virus H5N1 is a major concern as a potential global pandemic. It is thought that multiple key events must take place before efficient human-to-human transmission of the virus occurs. The first step in overcoming host restriction is viral entry which is mediated by HA, responsible for both viral attachment and viral/host membrane fusion. HA binds to glycans-containing receptors with terminal sialic acid (SA). It has been shown that avian influenza viruses preferentially bind to alpha 2,3-linked SAs, while human influenza A viruses exhibit a preference for alpha 2,6-linked SAs. Thus it is believed the precise linkage of SAs on the target cells dictate host tropism of the viruses. Results: We demonstrate that H5N1 HA/HIV pseudovirus can efficiently transduce several human cell lines including human lung cells. Interestingly, using a lectin binding assay we show that the presence of both alpha 2,6-linked and alpha 2,3-linked SAs on the target cells does not always correlate with efficient transduction. Further, HA substitutions of the residues implicated in switching SA-binding between avian and human species did not drastically affect HA-mediated transduction of the target cells or target cell binding. Conclusion: Our results suggest that a host factor(s), which is yet to be identified, is required for H5N1 entry in the host cells.
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