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Virol Res J 2017 Volume 1 Issue 3
International Virology Conference
October 30-31, 2017 | Toronto, Canada
Determinant of receptor-preference switch in influenza hemagglutinin
Qinghua Wang
1
, Fengyun Ni
1
and
Elena Kondrashkina
2
1
Baylor College of Medicine, USA
2
Northwestern University, USA
H
emagglutinin (HA) is one of the two major glycoproteins
on the surface of influenza virus. One main function of
HA is to selectively bind to sialic-acid receptors on host cells
to trigger viral entry by endocytosis. There are two types of
sialic-acid receptors that HA recognizes: (2,3)-linked avian-like
receptors and (2,6)-linked human-like receptors. Frequently, a
small number of substitutions in HA would endorse a switch
in receptor-binding specificity from avian-like to human-like
receptors, thus allowing cross-species transmission. However,
the set of residues required for such a receptor-binding
specificity switch differs among various subtypes of influenza
type A virus. In my talk, I will discuss the results of our most
recent study in understanding the underlying principles of this
process.
Speaker Biography
Qinghua Wang has completed her Bachelor’s degree at Peking University in China
and PhD degree at University of Cambridge in Britain. She then received Post-doctoral
training at Harvard University. She is an Assistant Professor at Baylor College of
Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA. Her laboratory has made seminal contributions to our
understanding of influenza type A and type B virus hemagglutinin.
e:
qinghuaw@bcm.edu