A Virion-Based Assay for Glycoprotein Thermostability Reveals Key Determinants of Filovirus Entry and Its Inhibition

Copyright © 2020 American Society for Microbiology..

Ebola virus (EBOV) entry into cells is mediated by its spike glycoprotein (GP). Following attachment and internalization, virions traffic to late endosomes where GP is cleaved by host cysteine proteases. Cleaved GP then binds its cellular receptor, Niemann-Pick C1. In response to an unknown cellular trigger, GP undergoes conformational rearrangements that drive fusion of viral and endosomal membranes. The temperature-dependent stability (thermostability) of the prefusion conformers of class I viral fusion glycoproteins, including those of filovirus GPs, has provided insights into their propensity to undergo fusion-related rearrangements. However, previously described assays have relied on soluble glycoprotein ectodomains. Here, we developed a simple enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)-based assay that uses the temperature-dependent loss of conformational epitopes to measure thermostability of GP embedded in viral membranes. The base and glycan cap subdomains of all filovirus GPs tested suffered a concerted loss of prefusion conformation at elevated temperatures but did so at different temperature ranges, indicating virus-specific differences in thermostability. Despite these differences, all of these GPs displayed reduced thermostability upon cleavage to GP conformers (GPCL). Surprisingly, acid pH enhanced, rather than decreased, GP thermostability, suggesting it could enhance viral survival in hostile endo/lysosomal compartments. Finally, we confirmed and extended previous findings that some small-molecule inhibitors of filovirus entry destabilize EBOV GP and uncovered evidence that the most potent inhibitors act through multiple mechanisms. We establish the epitope-loss ELISA as a useful tool for studies of filovirus entry, engineering of GP variants with enhanced stability for use in vaccine development, and discovery of new stability-modulating antivirals.IMPORTANCE The development of Ebola virus countermeasures is challenged by our limited understanding of cell entry, especially at the step of membrane fusion. The surface-exposed viral protein, GP, mediates membrane fusion and undergoes major structural rearrangements during this process. The stability of GP at elevated temperatures (thermostability) can provide insights into its capacity to undergo these rearrangements. Here, we describe a new assay that uses GP-specific antibodies to measure GP thermostability under a variety of conditions relevant to viral entry. We show that proteolytic cleavage and acid pH have significant effects on GP thermostability that shed light on their respective roles in viral entry. We also show that the assay can be used to study how small-molecule entry inhibitors affect GP stability. This work provides a simple and readily accessible assay to engineer stabilized GP variants for antiviral vaccines and to discover and improve drugs that act by modulating GP stability.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2020

Erschienen:

2020

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:94

Enthalten in:

Journal of virology - 94(2020), 18 vom: 31. Aug.

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Bortz, Robert H [VerfasserIn]
Wong, Anthony C [VerfasserIn]
Grodus, Michael G [VerfasserIn]
Recht, Hannah S [VerfasserIn]
Pulanco, Marc C [VerfasserIn]
Lasso, Gorka [VerfasserIn]
Anthony, Simon J [VerfasserIn]
Mittler, Eva [VerfasserIn]
Jangra, Rohit K [VerfasserIn]
Chandran, Kartik [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

094ZI81Y45
1HRS458QU2
7NFE54O27T
B0P231ILBK
Clomiphene
Ebola virus
Envelope glycoprotein, Ebola virus
Epitopes
Filovirus
Glycoproteins
Journal Article
Marburg virus
Membrane fusion
Niemann-Pick C1 Protein
Ospemifene
Receptors, Virus
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Tamoxifen
Thermostability
Toremifene
Viral Envelope Proteins
Viral Fusion Proteins
Virus entry

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 24.11.2020

Date Revised 28.02.2021

published: Electronic-Print

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1128/JVI.00336-20

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM311896111