Publications related to Initial Step of Virus Entry: Virion Binding to Cell-Surface Glycans

Peptide-based virucidal drugs

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, viruses were not a major priority for the scientific community. Today, many events have changed the world and the importance of studying viruses, vaccines, and antiviral drugs is fully appreciated. The development of effective ...

EPFL2024

Rescue of secretion of rare-disease-associated misfolded mutant glycoproteins in UGGT1 knock-out mammalian cells

Maurizio Molinari

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retention of misfolded glycoproteins is mediated by the ER-localized eukaryotic glycoprotein secretion checkpoint, UDP-glucose glycoprotein glucosyl-transferase (UGGT). The enzyme recognizes a misfolded glycoprotein and flags it ...

Wiley2024

Stimulus-responsive assembly of nonviral nucleocapsids

Angela Steinauer

Controlled assembly of a protein shell around a viral genome is a key step in the life cycle of many viruses. Here we report a strategy for regulating the co-assembly of nonviral proteins and nucleic acids into highly ordered nucleocapsids in vitro. By fus ...

Nature Portfolio2024

Inactivation of influenza A virus in expiratory droplets and aerosol particles and the associated physicochemical drivers

Aline Laetitia Schaub

Influenza is an infectious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses. Every year, it causes up to one billion cases of disease worldwide. Despite its high disease burden, the transmission pathway of influenza remains subject to debate. There is incre ...

EPFL2024

Characterization of the gut-bone marrow axis through bile acid signaling

Alejandro Alonso Calleja

Communication between the intestine and other organs such as the lungs, brain or bones is mediated by several metabolites, like short-chain fatty acids or bile acids, that relay information about nutritional and microbiota status. Bile acids are endogenous ...

EPFL2024

Exploration and modulation of mechanical cues for enhanced cancer immunotherapy

Armand Kurum

The advent of immunotherapy, such as immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) and adoptive transfer of cytotoxic lymphocytes, has transformed the clinical care of cancer. However, a significant proportion of patients are resistant to immunotherapy or experience re ...

EPFL2024

S-acylation and lipid exchange at the ER-Golgi membrane contact sites regulate pathogen entry in human cells

Muhammad Umair Anwar

Cells have evolved endocytic pathways to internalize different molecules, to regulate intra-cellular communication and their interaction with external environment. Pathogens have co-evolved with cells to exploit these processes for infections. In particula ...

EPFL2024

Accessible and highly observable gastrointestinal organoid model systems for studying host-pathogen interactions

Moritz Hofer

Traditional cell cultures have long been fundamental to biological research, offering an alternative to animal models burdened by ethical constraints and procedural intricacies, often lacking relevance to human physiology and disease. Moreover, their inabi ...

EPFL2024

Comparison of Three Viral Nucleic Acid Preamplification Pipelines for Sewage Viral Metagenomics

Tamar Kohn, Xavier Fernandez Cassi

Viral metagenomics is a useful tool for detecting multiple human viruses in urban sewage. However, more refined protocols are required for its effective use in disease surveillance. In this study, we investigated the performance of three different preampli ...

2024

Stability of influenza A virus in droplets and aerosols is heightened by the presence of commensal respiratory bacteria

Tamar Kohn, Htet Kyi Wynn, Céline Terrettaz, Aline Laetitia Schaub, Athanasios Nenes, Kalliopi Violaki, Marta Augugliaro, Shannon Christa David, Ghislain Gilles Jean-Michel Motos, Walter Hugentobler, Laura José Costa Henriques, Daniel Scott Nolan

Aerosol transmission remains a major challenge for control of respiratory viruses, particularly those causing recurrent epidemics, like influenza A virus (IAV). These viruses are rarely expelled alone, but instead are embedded in a consortium of microorgan ...

American Society for Microbiology2024

Multimodal transcriptomic atlases of mouse spinal cord injury

Matthieu Pierre Gautier

A spinal cord injury (SCI) triggers a cascade of molecular and cellular responses involving inflammatory cell infiltration and cytokine release, apoptosis, demyelination, excitotoxicity, ischemia, and the formation of a fibrotic scar surrounded by an astro ...

EPFL2024

Combining ion mobility spectrometry and cryogenic ion spectroscopy with enzymatic digestion/synthesis for the study of N-linked glycans

Irina Märki

Glycans play an essential role in numerous physiological and pathological processes of living organisms. Despite their significant biological relevance, glycobiology remains one of the least explored fields of biochemistry. The intrinsic isomeric complexit ...

EPFL2023

Multistage Ion Mobility Spectrometry Combined with Infrared Spectroscopy for Glycan Analysis

Thomas Rizzo, Ahmed Ben Faleh, Stephan Warnke, Priyanka Bansal

The structural complexity of glycans makes their characterization challenging, not only because of the presence of various isomeric forms of the precursor molecule but also because the fragments can themselves be isomeric. We have recently developed an IMS ...

2023

Direct observation of glycans bonded to proteins and lipids at the single-molecule level

Klaus Kern, Stephan Rauschenbach

Proteins and lipids decorated with glycans are found throughout biological entities, playing roles in biological functions and dysfunctions. Current analytical strategies for these glycan-decorated biomolecules, termed glycoconjugates, rely on ensemble-ave ...

American Association for the Advancement of Science2023

Screening for drivers of SARS-CoV-2 uptake

Christoph Merten, Alexis Louis Autour

Genetic and cellular drivers of the cellular uptake of SARS-CoV-2 can be screened at high throughput via droplet microfluidics and size-exclusion methods for the analysis of the formation of fusions between cells expressing the virus's spike protein and ce ...

Nature Portfolio2023

Multivalent Virucidal Antivirals: Synthesis, Mechanisms of Action, and Immune-stimulating Effects

Yong Zhu

Viruses initiate invasion by binding to cell surface glycoproteins. Materials mimicking the carbohydrate motifs of these glycoproteins, such as heparan sulfate (HS) and sialic acid (SA) can block viral attachment and inhibit the infection. Multivalent disp ...

EPFL2023

Simultaneous membrane and RNA binding by Tick-Borne Encephalitis Virus capsid protein

Sarah Victoria Barrass

Tick-borne encephalitis virus is an enveloped, pathogenic, RNA virus in the family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus. Viral particles are formed when the nucleocapsid, consisting of an RNA genome and multiple copies of the capsid protein, buds through the end ...

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE2023

Glycan heterogeneity as a cause of the persistent fraction in HIV-1 neutralization

Philippe Colin, Aleksandar Antanasijevic

Neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) to multiple epitopes on the HIV-1-envelope glycoprotein (Env) have been isolated from infected persons. The potency of NAbs is measured more often than the size of the persistent fraction of infectivity at maximum neutralizat ...

Public Library Science2023

Exploring the interplay of molecular pattern and valency for selective interactions at the bio-interface

Kaltrina Paloja

Cell-cell communication is fundamental for immune balance. Multivalent interactions of surface receptors at immune interfaces drive specific communication, with stimulatory and inhibitory signals guiding the immune outcome. Notably, the valency, affinity, ...

EPFL2023

Microfluidic device combining hydrodynamic and dielectrophoretic trapping for the controlled contact between single micro-sized objects and application to adhesion assays

Philippe Renaud, Arnaud Bertsch, Clémentine Sophie Sarah Lipp

The understanding of cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions via receptor and ligand binding relies on our ability to study the very first events of their contact. Of particular interest is the interaction between a T cell receptor and its cognate peptide-m ...

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY2023