Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Glycosylation is a ubiquitous post-translational modification responsible for a multitude of crucial biological roles. As obligate parasites, viruses exploit host-cell machinery to glycosylate their own proteins during replication. Viral envelope proteins from a variety of human pathogens including HIV-1, influenza virus, Lassa virus, SARS, Zika virus, dengue virus, and Ebola virus have evolved to be extensively glycosylated. These host-cell derived glycans facilitate diverse structural and functional roles during the viral life-cycle, ranging from immune evasion by glycan shielding to enhancement of immune cell infection. In this review, we highlight the imperative and auxiliary roles glycans play, and how specific oligosaccharide structures facilitate these functions during viral pathogenesis. We discuss the growing efforts to exploit viral glycobiology in the development of anti-viral vaccines and therapies.

Original publication

DOI

10.1016/j.bbagen.2019.05.012

Type

Journal article

Journal

Biochimica et biophysica acta. General subjects

Publication Date

10/2019

Volume

1863

Pages

1480 - 1497

Addresses

School of Biological Sciences and Institute of Life Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK; Division of Structural Biology, University of Oxford, Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, Oxford OX3 7BN, UK; Oxford Glycobiology Institute, Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QU, UK.

Keywords

Humans, Viruses, Glycoproteins, Polysaccharides, Molecular Mimicry, Protein Folding, Protein Transport, Glycosylation, Host-Pathogen Interactions, Virus Physiological Phenomena, Immune Evasion