Heparan sulfate promotes ACE2 super-cluster assembly to enhance SARS-CoV-2-associated syncytium formation.
Res Sq
; 2023 Mar 28.
Artigo
em Inglês
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2320852
ABSTRACT
The mechanism of syncytium formation, caused by spike-induced cell-cell fusion in severe COVID-19, is largely unclear. Here we combine chemical genetics with 4D confocal imaging to establish the cell surface heparan sulfate (HS) as a critical host factor exploited by SARS-CoV-2 to enhance spikeâ™s fusogenic activity. HS binds spike to facilitate ACE2 clustering, generating synapse-like cell-cell contacts to promote fusion pore formation. ACE2 clustering, and thus, syncytium formation is significantly mitigated by chemical or genetic elimination of cell surface HS, while in a cell-free system consisting of purified HS, spike, and lipid-anchored ACE2, HS directly induces ACE2 clustering. Importantly, the interaction of HS with spike allosterically enables a conserved ACE2 linker in receptor clustering, which concentrates spike at the fusion site to overcome fusion-associated activity loss. This fusion-boosting mechanism can be effectively targeted by an investigational HS-binding drug, which reduces syncytium formation in vitro and viral infection in mice.
Texto completo:
Disponível
Coleções:
Bases de dados internacionais
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Tipo de estudo:
Risk_factors_studies
Idioma:
Inglês
Ano de publicação:
2023
Tipo de documento:
Artigo
Similares
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS