INTERACTION OF A SUNFLOWER MANNOSE-BINDING LECTIN WITH INFLUENZA VIRUS.

RADICIONI, MELISA; DEL RÍO, MARIANELA; CAGNONI, ALEJANDRO; LERMAN, ANDREA; CIMMINO, CARLOS; SILVA, ANDREA; UEZ, OSVALDO; MARIÑO, KARINA; REGENTE, MARIANA

Mar del PLata

Congreso; Reunión Anual de Sociedades de Biociencias 2023; 2023

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Clínica

Influenza virus circulates in the world causing disease in humans.To establish an infection, the viral genome must replicate in theepithelial cells of the upper respiratory tract. In our laboratory, amannose-binding jacalin-like lectin of sunflower seeds, Helja, wasisolated and identified. The ability of Helja to bind glycoconjugatescould be of biomedical interest as an antipathogenic agent. Previousevidence obtained by hemagglutination inhibition, ligand-blot, andcompetition assays on mannose-agarose affinity matrices, suggeststhe binding of Helja to Influenza virus particles. The aim of this workwas to analyze the interaction of Helja with different types of Influenzaviruses through biophysical assays and to evaluate its abilityto inhibit viral binding to buccal epithelial host cells (BECs). Throughsolid phase assays, biotinylated Helja showed the ability to bind toall the immobilized viral particles analyzed, displaying greater affinityfor Influenza B Yamagata. Viral particles labeled with FITC and followingby fluorescence confocal microscopy were used to evaluatethe effect of the lectin on the virus binding to BECs. We observedthat the preincubation with Helja decreases the viral interaction tothe host cells for all the tested strains, showing greater inhibition forthe Influenza B Yamagata particles. Our results indicate that Heljainteracts differentially with the envelope glycoproteins of different InfluenzaA and B strains, suggesting its capacity as an effective toolto prevent virus entry and replication in host cells. Future studiescould contribute to the design of a new antiviral agent based on theuse of Helja as a bioactive compound.