EAGER: Biophysical Study of Solution Behavior and Vulnerability of Viruses with Complex N-glycans

历史上的黑人学院和大学-本科生计划（HBCU-UP）为加强HBCUs的STEM本科教育和研究提供支持。病毒似乎会根据传播途径中的溶液条件改变其聚集状态。本项目旨在确定病毒糖基化普遍决定溶液状态的程度。 由于病毒的感染性，免疫隐身和传播性随着聚集而变化，我们的目标是确定高度可变的病毒，如流感病毒，是否可以根据其溶液状态的易感性进行额外拦截。该项目的更广泛影响是更好地了解不同人群中溶液条件差异导致的病毒传播差异。虽然人们对这些病毒糖如何被免疫系统和信号通路的蛋白质识别很感兴趣，但人们对糖的生物物理学如何从根本上和广泛地保护病毒传播和感染的双重目的知之甚少。该项目有两个目标：1）研究复合N-聚糖是否广泛地决定病毒的聚集状态，以及在不同溶液条件下的感染性、抗体（Ab）抗性、粘蛋白结合;和2）为了确定NA和Hb如何包被甲型流感病毒上分别具有唾液酸切割和结合特性的蛋白，系统地改变甲型流感病毒的解行为和脆弱性，以适应其毒力需求。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities - Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) provides support to strengthen STEM undergraduate education and research at HBCUs. Viruses appear to change their aggregation state depending on the solution conditions in the transmission pathway. This project is designed to determine the extent to which the solution state is universally determined by the virus glycosylation. Since virus infectivity, immune-stealth, and transmissibility changes with aggregation, our goal is to determine if highly mutable viruses like influenza can be additionally intercepted based on the susceptibility of their solution state. The broader impact of the project is to better understand disparities in virus transmission from differences in the solution conditions in different populations. While there has been a lot of interest in how these virus sugars are recognized by proteins of the immune system and signaling pathways, little is known about how the biophysics of the sugars fundamentally and broadly protects viruses in their twin purposes of transmission and infection. This project has two goals: 1) To investigate if complex N-glycans broadly determine virus aggregation state of viruses, and the infectivity, antibody (Ab) resistance, mucin binding in different solution conditions; and 2) To determine how NA and Hb envelop proteins on influenza A virus, which have Sialic acid -cleaving and -binding properties, respectively, systematically change the solution behavior and vulnerability of Influenza A virus to suits its virulence needs. Methodologies include dynamic light scattering, atomic force microscopy, florescence microscopy, rheology, and cell culture.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.