Influenza-virus membrane fusion by cooperative fold-back of stochastically induced hemagglutinin intermediates

摘要

Influenza is caused by viruses that infect birds and mammals. These viruses enter cells when two lipid bilayers—one surrounding the virus, the other enclosing the cellular compartment into which the virus has been engulfed—merge to form a single unified membrane. This process, known as membrane fusion, allows the RNA of the virus to gain access to the host cell's molecular machinery, which it commandeers to produce multiple copies of itself and to direct the assembly of new virus particles. The process of membrane fusion generally includes an intermediate hemifused state in which only the adjacent monolayers from each bilayer have merged. In addition to its role in virology, membrane fusion is critical for many other biological processes, including exocytosis, protein trafficking and the fertilization of eggs by sperm. Efficient membrane fusion requires a catalyst, and a glycoprotein known as the influenza hemagglutinin performs this role for the influenza virus. The hemagglutinin is found on the surface of the virus, and a typical influenza virus particle can have a few hundred such molecules on its surface. When an influenza virus particle binds to the surface of a cell (as a result of these hemagglutinin molecules interacting with cellular receptor molecules), the cell engulfs the virus into an internal compartment called an endosome. Acidification of the endosome, part of the cell's normal activity, triggers a sequence of conformational changes in the hemagglutinin molecules on the surface of the virus. One part of the hemagglutinin inserts itself into the endosomal membrane, and further conformational changes draw the endosomal and viral membranes together into an intermediate, hemifused state; the process then continues until fusion of the two membranes is complete. Previous work has suggested that an average of three hemagglutinin molecules are required to fuse the endosomal and viral membranes. Ivanovic et al. have now investigated the molecular details of this process and described the time course of conformational changes undergone by the hemagglutinin molecules from the moment the pH is lowered within the endosome until the time when hemifusion of the endosomal and viral membranes is complete. They find, among other things, that hemifusion proceeds rapidly only when three or four immediately adjacent hemagglutinin molecules have inserted into the endosomal membrane. Since membrane fusion is a very general cellular process, the findings of Ivanovic et al. are relevant to many areas of cell biology, in addition to having potential applications in virology.