A Perspective on the Structural and Functional Constraints for Immune Evasion: Insights from Influenza Virus.

ABSTRACT: Influenza virus evolves rapidly to constantly escape from natural immunity. Most humoral immune responses to influenza virus target the hemagglutinin (HA) glycoprotein, which is the major antigen on the surface of the virus. The HA is composed of a globular head domain for receptor binding and a stem domain for membrane fusion. The major antigenic sites of HA are located in the globular head subdomain, which is highly tolerant of amino acid substitutions and continual addition of glycosylation sites. Nonetheless, the evolution of the receptor-binding site and the stem region on HA is severely constrained by their functional roles in engaging the host receptor and in mediating membrane fusion, respectively. Here, we review how broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) exploit these evolutiona

SUBMITTER: Wu NC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5573227 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature