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Pascha M, Thijssen V, Egido JE, Linthorst MW, van Lanen JH, van Dongen DAA, Hopstaken AJP, van Kuppeveld FJM, Snijder J, de Haan CAM, Jongkees SAK. Inhibition of H1 and H5 Influenza A Virus Entry by Diverse Macrocyclic Peptides Targeting the Hemagglutinin Stem Region. ACS Chem Biol 2022; 17:2425-2436. [PMID: 35926224 PMCID: PMC9486808 DOI: 10.1021/acschembio.2c00040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
Influenza A viruses pose a serious pandemic risk, while generation of efficient vaccines against seasonal variants remains challenging. There is thus a pressing need for new treatment options. We report here a set of macrocyclic peptides that inhibit influenza A virus infection at low nanomolar concentrations by binding to hemagglutinin, selected using ultrahigh-throughput screening of a diverse peptide library. The peptides are active against both H1 and H5 variants, with no detectable cytotoxicity. Despite the high sequence diversity across hits, all tested peptides were found to bind to the same region in the hemagglutinin stem by HDX-MS epitope mapping. A mutation in this region identified in an escape variant confirmed the binding site. This stands in contrast to the immunodominance of the head region for antibody binding and suggests that macrocyclic peptides from in vitro display may be well suited for finding new druggable sites not revealed by antibodies. Functional analysis indicates that these peptides stabilize the prefusion conformation of the protein and thereby prevent virus-cell fusion. High-throughput screening of macrocyclic peptides is thus shown here to be a powerful method for the discovery of novel broadly acting viral fusion inhibitors with therapeutic potential.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mirte
N. Pascha
- Section
Virology, Division Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Department
of Biomolecular Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 1, 3584
CL Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Vito Thijssen
- Department
of Chemical Biology & Drug Discovery, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical
Sciences, Utrecht University, Universiteitsweg 99, 3584 CG Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Julia E. Egido
- Section
Virology, Division Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Department
of Biomolecular Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 1, 3584
CL Utrecht, The Netherlands,Department
of Chemical Biology & Drug Discovery, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical
Sciences, Utrecht University, Universiteitsweg 99, 3584 CG Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Mirte W. Linthorst
- Biomolecular
Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics, Bijvoet Center for Biomolecular
Research and Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Jipke H. van Lanen
- Section
Virology, Division Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Department
of Biomolecular Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 1, 3584
CL Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - David A. A. van Dongen
- Department
of Chemical Biology & Drug Discovery, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical
Sciences, Utrecht University, Universiteitsweg 99, 3584 CG Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Antonius J. P. Hopstaken
- Department
of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Amsterdam Institute for
Molecular and Life Sciences, VU Amsterdam, de Boelelaan 1108, 1081 HZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Frank J. M. van Kuppeveld
- Section
Virology, Division Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Department
of Biomolecular Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 1, 3584
CL Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Joost Snijder
- Biomolecular
Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics, Bijvoet Center for Biomolecular
Research and Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Cornelis A. M. de Haan
- Section
Virology, Division Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Department
of Biomolecular Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 1, 3584
CL Utrecht, The Netherlands,
| | - Seino A. K. Jongkees
- Department
of Chemical Biology & Drug Discovery, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical
Sciences, Utrecht University, Universiteitsweg 99, 3584 CG Utrecht, The Netherlands,Department
of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Amsterdam Institute for
Molecular and Life Sciences, VU Amsterdam, de Boelelaan 1108, 1081 HZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands,
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