Targeted disruption of pi-pi stacking in Malaysian banana lectin reduces mitogenicity while preserving antiviral activity.

ABSTRACT: Lectins, carbohydrate-binding proteins, have been regarded as potential antiviral agents, as some can bind glycans on viral surface glycoproteins and inactivate their functions. However, clinical development of lectins has been stalled by the mitogenicity of many of these proteins, which is the ability to stimulate deleterious proliferation, especially of immune cells. We previously demonstrated that the mitogenic and antiviral activities of a lectin (banana lectin, BanLec) can be separated via a single amino acid mutation, histidine to threonine at position 84 (H84T), within the third Greek key. The resulting lectin, H84T BanLec, is virtually non-mitogenic but retains antiviral activity. Decreased mitogenicity was associated with disruption of pi-pi stacking between two aromatic amino aci

SUBMITTER: Coves-Datson EM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7804308 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature