Marine sulfated glycans inhibit the interaction of heparin with S-protein of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron XBB variant
Peng He1,2 · Yuefan Song1,3 · Weihua Jin1,4 · Yunran Li1,3 · Ke Xia1,3 · Seon Beom Kim5,6 · Rohini Dwivedi5 · Marwa Farrag5 · John Bates5 · Vitor H. Pomin5 · Chunyu Wang1,3 · Robert J. Linhardt1,3,7 · Jonathan S. Dordick1,7 · Fuming Zhang1,7
1 Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA
2 School of Oceanography, Beibu Gulf University, 535011 Qinzhou, China
3 Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 12180 Troy, NY, USA
4 College of Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, 310014 Hangzhou, China
5 Department of BioMolecular Sciences, Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS, USA
6 Department of Food Science & Technology, College of Natural Resources and Life Science, Pusan National University, Miryang, Republic of Korea
7 Departments of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 12180 Troy, NY, USA
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, leading to 6.8 million deaths. Numerous variants have emerged since its outbreak, resulting in its significantly enhanced ability to spread among humans. As with many other viruses, SARS-CoV-2 utilizes heparan sulfate (HS) glycosaminoglycan (GAG) on the surface of host cells to facilitate viral attachment and initiate cellular entry through the ACE2 receptor. Therefore, interfering with virion-HS interactions represents a promising target to develop broad-spectrum antiviral therapeutics. Sulfated glycans derived from marine organisms have been proven to be exceptional reservoirs of naturally existing HS mimetics, which exhibit remarkable therapeutic properties encompassing antiviral/microbial, antitumor, anticoagulant, and anti-inflammatory activities. In the current study, the interactions between the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of S-protein of SARS-CoV-2 (both WT and XBB.1.5 variants) and heparin were applied to assess the inhibitory activity of 10 marine-sourced glycans including three sulfated fucans, three fucosylated chondroitin sulfates and two fucoidans derived from sea cucumbers, sea urchin and seaweed Saccharina japonica, respectively. The inhibitory activity of these marine derived sulfated glycans on the interactions between RBD of S-protein and heparin was evaluated using Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR). The RBDs of S-proteins from both Omicrion XBB.1.5 and wild-type (WT) were found to bind to heparin, which is a highly sulfated form of HS. All the tested marine-sourced sulfated glycans exhibited strong inhibition of WT and XBB.1.5 S-protein binding to heparin. We believe the study on the molecular interactions between S-proteins and host cell glycosaminoglycans provides valuable insight for the development of marine-sourced, glycan-based inhibitors as potential anti-SARS-CoV-2 agents.
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