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N-glycosylation of viral glycoprotein is a novel determinant for the tropism and virulence of highly pathogenic tick-borne bunyaviruses

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) virus, a tick-borne bunyavirus, causes a severe/fatal disease termed SFTS; however, the viral virulence is not fully understood. The viral non-structural protein, NSs, is the sole known virulence factor. NSs disturbs host innate immune responses and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS pathogens 2024-07, Vol.20 (7), p.e1012348
Main Authors: Shimojima, Masayuki, Sugimoto, Satoko, Taniguchi, Satoshi, Maeki, Takahiro, Yoshikawa, Tomoki, Kurosu, Takeshi, Tajima, Shigeru, Lim, Chang-Kweng, Ebihara, Hideki
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Language:English
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Summary:Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) virus, a tick-borne bunyavirus, causes a severe/fatal disease termed SFTS; however, the viral virulence is not fully understood. The viral non-structural protein, NSs, is the sole known virulence factor. NSs disturbs host innate immune responses and an NSs-mutant SFTS virus causes no disease in an SFTS animal model. The present study reports a novel determinant of viral tropism as well as virulence in animal models, within the glycoprotein (GP) of SFTS virus and an SFTS-related tick-borne bunyavirus. Infection with mutant SFTS viruses lacking the N-linked glycosylation of GP resulted in negligible usage of calcium-dependent lectins in cells, less efficient infection, high susceptibility to a neutralizing antibody, low cytokine production in macrophage-like cells, and reduced virulence in Ifnar-/- mice, when compared with wildtype virus. Three SFTS virus-related bunyaviruses had N-glycosylation motifs at similar positions within their GP and a glycan-deficient mutant of Heartland virus showed in vitro and in vivo phenotypes like those of the SFTS virus. Thus, N-linked glycosylation of viral GP is a novel determinant for the tropism and virulence of SFTS virus and of a related virus. These findings will help us understand the process of severe/fatal diseases caused by tick-borne bunyaviruses.
ISSN:1553-7374
1553-7366
1553-7374
DOI:10.1371/journal.ppat.1012348