Hamming P H Erik, Overeem Nico J, Huskens Jurriaan
Molecular Nanofabrication Group , MESA + Institute for Nanotechnology , Faculty of Science and Technology , University of Twente , P.O. Box 217 , 7500 AE Enschede , The Netherlands . Email:
Chem Sci. 2019 Nov 14;11(1):27-36. doi: 10.1039/c9sc05149j. eCollection 2020 Jan 7.
The surface of the influenza virus is decorated with the receptor-binding protein hemagglutinin (HA) and the receptor-cleaving enzyme neuraminidase (NA). HA is responsible for host cell recognition, while NA prevents aggregation and entrapment, but the intricate mechanism of how the functions of these glycoproteins cooperate and how they are regulated by mutational responses to environmental pressures remains unclear. Recently, several groups have described the motion of influenza over surfaces and reported that this motion is inhibited by NA inhibitors. We argue that the motion of influenza resembles the motility of artificial receptor-cleaving particles called "molecular spiders". The cleaving of receptors by this type of molecular walkers leads to self-avoiding motion across a surface. When the binding and cleaving rates of molecular spiders are balanced, they move both rapidly and efficiently. The studies of molecular spiders offer new insights into the functional balance of HA and NA, but they do not address the asymmetric distribution of HA and NA on the surface of influenza. We propose that receptor-cleaving molecular walkers could play an important role in the further investigation of the motility of influenza viruses.
流感病毒表面分布着受体结合蛋白血凝素（HA）和受体切割酶神经氨酸酶（NA）。HA负责识别宿主细胞，而NA则防止病毒聚集和被困，但这些糖蛋白的功能如何协同以及它们如何通过对环境压力的突变反应进行调节，其复杂机制仍不清楚。最近，几个研究小组描述了流感病毒在表面的运动，并报告称这种运动受到NA抑制剂的抑制。我们认为，流感病毒的运动类似于一种名为“分子蜘蛛”的人工受体切割颗粒的运动。这种分子行走器对受体的切割导致其在表面进行自我回避运动。当分子蜘蛛的结合和切割速率达到平衡时，它们既能快速移动又能高效移动。对分子蜘蛛的研究为HA和NA的功能平衡提供了新的见解，但它们没有涉及HA和NA在流感病毒表面的不对称分布。我们提出，受体切割分子行走器可能在进一步研究流感病毒的运动性方面发挥重要作用。
