Title

Identification of sequence mutations affecting hemagglutinin specificity to sialic acid receptor in influenza A virus subtypes 

Authors

Usman Sumo Friend Tambunan^*& Ramdhan

Affiliation

Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, University of Indonesia, Depok Campus, Depok 16424, Indonesia

Email

usman@ui.ac.id

Article Type

Hypothesis

Date

Received December 01, 2009; Accepted November 09, 2010; Published November 27, 2010
 

The attachment of the hemagglutinin protein of the H1N1 subtype of the pandemic influenza A virus to the sialic acid receptor Sia(a2-6)Gal has contributed to the ability of the virus to replicate in the human body and transmit among humans. In view of the pandemic caused by the replication and transmission of the H1N1 virus, more studies on the specificity of hemagglutinin towards sialic acid and how it affects the replication and transmission ability of this virus among humans are needed. In this study, we have applied sequence, structural and functional analyses to the hemagglutinin protein of the pandemic H1N1 virus, with the aim of identifying amino acid mutation patterns that affect its specificity to sialic acid. We have also employed a molecular docking method to evaluate the complex formed between hemagglutinin protein and the sialic acid receptor. Based on our results, we suggest two possible mutation patterns: 1) positions 190 and 225 from glutamic acid and glycine to aspartic acid (E190D in A/Brevig Mission/1/18 (H1N1), A/New York/1/18(H1N1) and A/South Carolina/1/1918(H1N1) and G225D in A/South Carolina/1/1918(H1N1), A/South Carolina/1/1918(H1N1), and A/Puerto Rico/8/34(H1N1)) and 2) positions 226 and 228 from glutamine and glycine to leucine and serine, respectively (Q226L and G228S in A/Guiyang/1/1957(H2N2), A/Kayano/57(H2N2), A/Aichi/2/1968(H3N2), A/Hong Kong/1/1968(H3N2) and A/Memphis/1/68(H3N2)) that can potentially contribute to the specificity of hemagglutinin to Sia(a2-6)Gal, thereby enabling the replication and transmission of virus within and among humans. 

Keywords

hemagglutinin; influenza pandemic; molecular docking; sialic acid receptor

Citation

Tambunan & Ramdhan. Bioinformation, 5(6): 244-249, 2010

Edited by

Tan Tin Wee

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.