人冠状病毒NL63棘突蛋白的研究进展

20世纪60年代以前,人们普遍认为只有2种人冠状病毒(HCoV)HCoV-229E和HCoV-OC43感染人类,2002～2003年出现的由SARS-CoV引发的严重急性呼吸综合征(SARS)的流行使人冠状病毒又一次成为研究的焦点,2004年又发现了一种新的人冠状病毒HCoV-NL63。在此,主要就HCoV-NL63,特别是其主要结构蛋白——棘突蛋白的研究进展做一简要综述。     

表达人冠状病毒NL63棘突蛋白不同片段的重组痘苗病毒的制备与表达分析

HCoV-NL63是新近发现的人冠状病毒,对其外膜糖蛋白-棘突蛋白的表达及功能的研究仍有待深入。本研究利用天坛株痘苗病毒载体,克隆构建可表达HCoV-NL63棘突蛋白四个片段(N端棘突蛋白:S1;C端棘突蛋白:S2;受体结合区大片段:RL;受体结合区小片段:RS)的重组痘苗病毒(vJSC1175-S1;vJSC1175-S2;vJSC1175-RL;vJSC1175-RS),酶切测序证实表达载体构建正确,免疫荧光分析(IFA)各重组痘苗病毒中棘突蛋白不同片段的表达与定位,Western-Blot分析表明各种重组蛋白表达正确。分析结果显示:4种重组蛋白均能有效表达,S1、RL及RS蛋白的荧光主要分布在细胞膜上,而S2蛋白的荧光则主要分布于细胞浆,各个片段的分子量大小与文献报道相同,并可进行正确的翻译修饰(糖基化)。本研究首次采用痘苗病毒天坛株载体构建制备了表达HCoV-NL63棘突蛋白不同片段的重组痘苗病毒,为进一步分析人冠状病毒HCoV-NL63棘突蛋白的结构功能及探索其抗原性和免疫原性奠定了基础。     

人冠状病毒NL63核壳蛋白和棘突蛋白的表达及其在血清学检测中的初步应用

目的:重组表达人冠状病毒NL63(HCoV-NL63)的核壳蛋白(N蛋白)及棘突蛋白(S蛋白),用于检测血清中的相应抗体。方法:用原核表达系统表达HCoV-NL63的N蛋白,建立检测N抗体的Werstern印迹法;用真核表达系统表达HCoV-NL63的S蛋白,建立检测S抗体的间接免疫荧光(IFA)法。结果:经Werstern印迹检测,重组S蛋白和N蛋白表达正确;初步建立了N蛋白纯化方法。利用建立的检测方法,检测了100份正常成人血清,总阳性率为81%。其中S抗体阳性率为66%,N抗体阳性率为38%,S抗体和N抗体均为阳性的占总数的22%,双抗体均为阴性的占总数的19%;S抗体的检出率明显高于N抗体。结论:重组HCoV-NL63N蛋白及S蛋白表达成功;S抗体和N抗体共同检测可获得较好的检测结果,减少漏检。     

禽流感病毒跨种属感染人的机制研究进展

禽流感病毒(avian influenza virus,简称AIV)不仅引起禽类感染和流行,而且可以打破种属屏障(speciesbarrier)、引起人或其他哺乳动物感染和传播。近年来对人呼吸道抗禽流感病毒感染的非特异屏障机制、禽流感病毒对人感染的机制研究不断取得新的进展。     

结构域B在鼠冠状病毒S蛋白的抗原性及膜融合中的作用

棘突(spike, S)蛋白是冠状病毒表面必不可少的跨膜糖蛋白,在病毒进入宿主细胞时具有结合受体和诱导膜融合的双重作用。大部分冠状病毒S蛋白的受体结合域位于S1-CTD(即相对应的结构域B),而经典的乙型冠状病毒模型鼠肝炎病毒(mouse hepatitis virus, MHV)的受体mCEACAM1a与S1-NTD(即相对应的结构域A)结合,其结构域B的作用仍未完全清楚。本研究通过构建结构域B和S2膜融合元件的缺失突变体,并使其在鼠神经母细胞瘤细胞系Neuro-2a内成功表达,证实了结构域B对病毒S蛋白导致的细胞-细胞间膜融合是必需的。用不同方法处理的病毒颗粒作为抗原免疫小鼠,所获得的多克隆抗体进一步显示,结构域B不但是S蛋白的主要抗原决定簇,而且能诱导中和抗体明显抑制病毒感染和S蛋白介导的膜融合作用。此结果为阐述不同冠状病毒的致病性与感染性差异提供了新思路。     

冠状病毒感染细胞的受体结合机制

病毒感染宿主细胞是病毒致病的关键所在,病毒感染细胞需要与其受体相结合,介导其与细胞的膜融合反应。本综述了冠状病毒受体结合机制的研究进展,以及其在SARS病毒致病机制中可能的作用。     

犬瘟热病毒受体及其跨宿主感染

犬瘟热是由犬瘟热病毒(Canine distemper virus,CDV)感染引起的一种高度接触性传染病,其可跨宿主感染不同科属的多种动物并造成较高的死亡率,因此该病对养犬业、经济动物养殖业和野生动物保护业造成了很大危害。近年来,随着生态环境变化及病毒变异,CDV的宿主范围也不断扩大。目前已鉴定的CDV两种受体—SLAM和nectin-4,分别在宿主免疫细胞和上皮细胞上表达,二者与CDV血凝素(H)蛋白的相互作用是决定CDV跨宿主感染和病毒诱导宿主免疫抑制等致病性的基础。本文就近年来国内外对CDV受体及其跨宿主感染研究进展进行了综述。     

冠状病毒S蛋白N-端结构域在病毒入侵过程中的作用机制

冠状病毒(coronavirus)是单股正链RNA病毒,可以引起包括人类在内的多种动物的呼吸道、胃肠道和中枢神经系统疾病。病毒刺突蛋白(spike protein,S蛋白)的S1亚基的N-端结构域(N-terminal domain,NTD)和C-端结构域(C-terminal domain,CTD)都可以作为受体结合域(receptor-binding domain,RBD),且是病毒入侵宿主细胞的关键因素。一般认为,在病毒入侵过程中,S1-NTD主要通过识别并结合糖类受体(attachment receptors)来辅助S1-CTD特异性识别蛋白质受体[小鼠肝炎病毒(mouse hepatitis virus,MHV)除外]。然而,随着对新冠病毒的深入研究,发现S1-NTD也可以识别多种蛋白受体,其作用机理与特点也逐渐被揭示。该文综述了冠状病毒的S1-NTD与受体识别的结构基础,总结了冠状病毒S1-NTD的进化过程,有利于深入理解冠状病毒入侵宿主细胞机制和病毒跨物种传播机制,并为基于NTD的药物及疫苗的开发提供参考。     

禽流感病毒跨种属感染人的机制研究进展*

禽流感病毒(avian influenza virus,简称AIV)不仅引起禽类感染和流行,而且可以打破种属屏障(spec ies barrier)、引起人或其他哺乳动物感染和传播。近年来对人呼吸道抗禽流感病毒感染的非特异屏障机制、禽流感病毒对人感染的机制研究不断取得新的进展。     

最早传入北京地区的SARS冠状病毒S基因序列分析和克隆

SARS冠状病毒的spike(S)蛋白对病毒的致病力至关重要,也是机体特异性体液和细胞免疫主要针对的靶分子。从北京地区最早发现的SARS患者咽拭子细胞培养上清中提取病毒RNA,用反转录巢式聚合酶链式反应(RTPCR)分6个片段扩增出S基因全序列,用TA载体克隆后进行DNA序列分析,再通过重叠PCR将6个片段连接成一条完整的S基因并克隆测序。DNA测序结果表明病毒S基因序列与报告的BJ01株SARS冠状病毒S基因序列完全一致,用重叠PCR将6个S基因片段连接成了一条完整的S基因,插入到pGEMT载体后读序完全正确。上述结果表明最早传入北京地区的病毒与新近报告的BJ01株SARS冠状病毒在分子流行病学上具有同源特征,重叠PCR技术可以用于有效连接多个基因片段。S区全基因的克隆为进一步研究该基因的功能和DNA疫苗等研究提供了基础。     

FASN inhibitor TVB-3166 prevents S-acylation of the spike protein of human coronaviruses

The spike protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and other coronaviruses mediates host cell entry and is S-acylated on multiple phylogenetically conserved cysteine residues. Multiple protein acyltransferase enzymes have been reported to post-translationally modify spike proteins; however, strategies to exploit this modification are lacking. Using resin-assisted capture MS, we demonstrate that the spike protein is S-acylated in SARS-CoV-2-infected human and monkey epithelial cells. We further show that increased abundance of the acyltransferase ZDHHC5 associates with increased S-acylation of the spike protein, whereas ZDHHC5 knockout cells had a 40% reduction in the incorporation of an alkynyl-palmitate using click chemistry detection. We also found that the S-acylation of the spike protein is not limited to palmitate, as clickable versions of myristate and stearate were also labelled the protein. Yet, we observed that ZDHHC5 was only modified when incubated with alkyne-palmitate, suggesting it has specificity for this acyl-CoA, and that other ZDHHC enzymes may use additional fatty acids to modify the spike protein. Since multiple ZDHHC isoforms may modify the spike protein, we also examined the ability of the FASN inhibitor TVB-3166 to prevent S-acylation of the spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2 and human CoV-229E. We show that treating cells with TVB-3166 inhibited S-acylation of expressed spike proteins and attenuated the ability of SARS-CoV-2 and human CoV-229E to spread in vitro. Our findings further substantiate the necessity of CoV spike protein S-acylation and demonstrate that de novo fatty acid synthesis is critical for the proper S-acylation of the spike protein.     

冠状病毒S蛋白的结构和功能

冠状病毒S蛋白具有受体结合活性和膜融合活性,在组织嗜性、细胞融合和毒力等方面具有重要作用。本综述了S蛋白的一般结构特征及其与细胞受体和膜融合的关系,并介绍了最近发现的SARS病毒S蛋白与其他冠状病毒的异同。     

Predicting the animal hosts of coronaviruses from compositional biases of spike protein and whole genome sequences through machine learning

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the serious potential for novel zoonotic coronaviruses to emerge and cause major outbreaks. The immediate animal origin of the causative virus, SARS-CoV-2, remains unknown, a notoriously challenging task for emerging disease investigations. Coevolution with hosts leads to specific evolutionary signatures within viral genomes that can inform likely animal origins. We obtained a set of 650 spike protein and 511 whole genome nucleotide sequences from 222 and 185 viruses belonging to the family Coronaviridae, respectively. We then trained random forest models independently on genome composition biases of spike protein and whole genome sequences, including dinucleotide and codon usage biases in order to predict animal host (of nine possible categories, including human). In hold-one-out cross-validation, predictive accuracy on unseen coronaviruses consistently reached ~73%, indicating evolutionary signal in spike proteins to be just as informative as whole genome sequences. However, different composition biases were informative in each case. Applying optimised random forest models to classify human sequences of MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV revealed evolutionary signatures consistent with their recognised intermediate hosts (camelids, carnivores), while human sequences of SARS-CoV-2 were predicted as having bat hosts (suborder Yinpterochiroptera), supporting bats as the suspected origins of the current pandemic. In addition to phylogeny, variation in genome composition can act as an informative approach to predict emerging virus traits as soon as sequences are available. More widely, this work demonstrates the potential in combining genetic resources with machine learning algorithms to address long-standing challenges in emerging infectious diseases.     

Efficient interspecies transmission of synthetic prions

Prions are comprised solely of PrP^Sc, the misfolded self-propagating conformation of the cellular protein, PrP^C. Synthetic prions are generated in vitro from minimal components and cause bona fide prion disease in animals. It is unknown, however, if synthetic prions can cross the species barrier following interspecies transmission. To investigate this, we inoculated Syrian hamsters with murine synthetic prions. We found that all the animals inoculated with murine synthetic prions developed prion disease characterized by a striking uniformity of clinical onset and signs of disease. Serial intraspecies transmission resulted in a rapid adaptation to hamsters. During the adaptation process, PrP^Sc electrophoretic migration, glycoform ratios, conformational stability and biological activity as measured by protein misfolding cyclic amplification remained constant. Interestingly, the strain that emerged shares a strikingly similar transmission history, incubation period, clinical course of disease, pathology and biochemical and biological features of PrP^Sc with 139H, a hamster adapted form of the murine strain 139A. Combined, these data suggest that murine synthetic prions are comprised of bona fide PrP^Sc with 139A-like strain properties that efficiently crosses the species barrier and rapidly adapts to hamsters resulting in the emergence of a single strain. The efficiency and specificity of interspecies transmission of murine synthetic prions to hamsters, with relevance to brain derived prions, could be a useful model for identification of structure function relationships between PrP^Sc and PrP^C from different species.     

Cross-neutralization of human and palm civet severe acute respiratory syndrome coronaviruses by antibodies targeting the receptor-binding domain of spike protein

The spike (S) protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) is considered as a protective Ag for vaccine design. We previously demonstrated that the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of S protein contains multiple conformational epitopes (Conf I-VI) that confer the major target of neutralizing Abs. Here we show that the recombinant RBDs derived from the S protein sequences of Tor2, GD03, and SZ3, the representative strains of human 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 SARS-CoV and palm civet SARS-CoV, respectively, induce in the immunized mice and rabbits high titers of cross-neutralizing Abs against pseudoviruses expressing S proteins of Tor2, GD03, and SZ3. We also demonstrate that the Tor2-RBD induced-Conf I-VI mAbs can potently neutralize both human SARS-CoV strains, Tor2 and GD03. However, only the Conf IV-VI, but not Conf I-III mAbs, neutralize civet SARS-CoV strain SZ3. All these mAbs reacted significantly with each of the three RBD variants (Tor2-RBD, GD03-RBD, and SZ3-RBD) that differ at several amino acids. Regardless, the Conf I-IV and VI epitopes were completely disrupted by single-point mutation of the conserved residues in the RBD (e.g., D429A, R441A, or D454A) and the Conf III epitope was significantly affected by E452A or D463A substitution. Interestingly, the Conf V epitope, which may overlap the receptor-binding motif and induce most potent neutralizing Abs, was conserved in these mutants. These data suggest that the major neutralizing epitopes of SARS-CoV have been apparently maintained during cross-species transmission, and that RBD-based vaccines may induce broad protection against both human and animal SARS-CoV variants.     

Adaptation and selection of prion protein strain conformations following interspecies transmission of transmissible mink encephalopathy

Interspecies transmission of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), or prion diseases, can result in the adaptation and selection of TSE strains with an expanded host range and increased virulence such as in the case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. To investigate TSE strain adaptation, we serially passaged a biological clone of transmissible mink encephalopathy (TME) into Syrian golden hamsters and examined the selection of distinct strain phenotypes and conformations of the disease-specific isoform of the prion protein (PrP(Sc)). The long-incubation-period drowsy (DY) TME strain was the predominate strain, based on the presence of its strain-specific PrP(Sc) following interspecies passage. Additional serial passages in hamsters resulted in the selection of the hyper (HY) TME PrP(Sc) strain-dependent conformation and its short incubation period phenotype unless the passages were performed with a low-dose inoculum (e.g., 10(-5) dilution), in which case the DY TME clinical phenotype continued to predominate. For both TME strains, the PrP(Sc) strain pattern preceded stabilization of the TME strain phenotype. These findings demonstrate that interspecies transmission of a single cloned TSE strain resulted in adaptation of at least two strain-associated PrP(Sc) conformations that underwent selection until one type of PrP(Sc) conformation and strain phenotype became predominant. To examine TME strain selection in the absence of host adaptation, hamsters were coinfected with hamster-adapted HY and DY TME. DY TME was able to interfere with the selection of the short-incubation HY TME phenotype. Coinfection could result in the DY TME phenotype and PrP(Sc) conformation on first passage, but on subsequent passages, the disease pattern converted to HY TME. These findings indicate that during TSE strain adaptation, there is selection of a strain-specific PrP(Sc) conformation that can determine the TSE strain phenotype.     

Rice Ragged Stunt Oryzavirus: role of the viral spike protein in transmission by the insect vector

A 39 kDa protein, known as the viral spike protein or one of the protein components forming the viral spike, encoded by genomic segment 9 (S9) of Rice Ragged Stunt Oryzavirus (RRSV) was obtained by enzymatic cleavage of a fusion protein expressed by S9 cDNA in bacteria with proteinase factor Xa. The feeding of an insect vector — the rice brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens) on purified expressed 39 kDa protein before the inoculation of the insects on diseased rice plants could completely inhibit the vector transmission ability of the insect. The presence of a 32 kDa insect cell membrane protein which could bind to 39 kDa viral spike protein indicated that the inhibition might be resulted from the competition in the interactions of 39 kDa protein and intact virus with the virus receptors on the insect cells. These results suggest that the spike proteins of the plant reoviruses are essential for the virus infection in the interactions of virus, insect vectors and host plants. These results are also useful in the practical applications.     

Experimental herpes-like viral infections in marine bivalves: demonstration of interspecies transmission

The sequences of gene segments 2 and 8 from 10 different isolates of infectious salmon anaemia virus (ISAV) sampled in Norway, Canada and Scotland between 1987 and 1999 were determined and compared. Pairwise comparisons revealed a high degree of homology between the European isolates, with identities of 98 to 100% for both genes examined. The Canadian isolate showed identities of 84 and 87 to 88% with the European isolates for the nucleotide sequence of segments 2 and 8, respectively. Phylogenetic analyses were performed to establish the interrelationship between the European virus isolates. The evolutionary rate based on 4 Norwegian isolates clustered together in the analysis of segment 2 was calculated to be 0.96 x 10(-3) nucleotides site(-1) yr(-1). On the basis of this mutation rate it was estimated that the Norwegian Glesvaer 90 and Canadian Bay of Fundy 97 isolates diverged around 1900, which coincides with transportation of salmonids between Europe and North America starting in the late nineteenth century.