Characterization of conserved properties of hemagglutinin of H5N1 and human influenza viruses: possible consequences for therapy and infection control.
BACKGROUND
Epidemics caused by highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) are a continuing threat to human health and to the world's economy. The development of approaches, which help to understand the significance of structural changes resulting from the alarming mutational propensity for human-to-human transmission of HPAIV, is of particularly interest. Here we compare informational and structural properties of the hemagglutinin (HA) of H5N1 virus and human influenza virus subtypes, which are important for the receptor/virus interaction.


RESULTS
Presented results revealed that HA proteins encode highly conserved information that differ between influenza virus subtypes H5N1, H1N1, H3N2, H7N7 and defined an HA domain which may modulate interaction with receptor. We also found that about one third of H5N1 viruses which are isolated during the 2006/07 influenza outbreak in Egypt possibly evolve towards receptor usage similar to that of seasonal H1N1.


CONCLUSIONS
The presented results may help to better understand the interaction of influenza virus with its receptor(s) and to identify new therapeutic targets for drug development.
Center for Multidisciplinary Research, Institute of Nuclear Sciences VINCA, P.O. Box 522, 11001 Belgrade, Serbia. vv@vinca.rs
Veljko
V
Veljkovic
Nevena
N
Veljkovic
Claude P
CP
Muller
Sybille
S
Müller
Sanja
S
Glisic
Vladimir
V
Perovic
Heinz
H
Köhler
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D004534:Egypt; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006388:Hemagglutinins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000379:methods; D053124:Influenza A Virus, H5N1 Subtype / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000628:therapy* / Q000821:virology*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009975:Orthomyxoviridae / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D011487:Protein Conformation; D020539:Sequence Analysis, Protein
D006388:Hemagglutinins