Viral membrane fusion articles from across Nature Portfolio

Human metapneumovirus can cause severe lung disease in vulnerable people, yet no vaccines or treatments are available. Harris et al. identify 4F11, a potent monoclonal antibody with unique binding properties, and demonstrate its efficacy in reducing viral loads in vitro and in vivo.

Cryo-EM structures of the full-length Junin virus and Machupo virus spike glycoprotein complexes stabilized in the prefusion conformation. Analyses reveal features that regulate glycoprotein pH-dependent membrane fusion activity.

Here the authors characterize a single-domain antibody that broadly neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 variants with high potency by targeting the heptad repeat 2 (HR2) coiled coil, conserved in sarbecoviruses. Binding to its quaternary epitope blocks membrane fusion, by locking HR2 in its prefusion conformation.

Here the authors engineer a bispecific antibody (Ab) for HIV-1 by combining a gp41 N-heptad repeat targeting Ab with a CD4 binding Ab. Prepositioning via CD4 binding results in high neutralization breadth and potency, and experiments in HIV infected humanized male mice show reduction of viral load.

Sialoglycan receptor binding promotes the D2 domain up conformation in the HKU1 coronavirus spike protein. Here the authors show that this conformational change is driven fundamentally by the full structuring of the canonical embecovirus binding site.

In this Journal Club, Emily Speranza revists a paper that identifies NPC1 as a crucial host factor required for Ebola virus entry.