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Biomedical subjects

Fumihiro Taguchi

Publications and source records attributed to Fumihiro Taguchi.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Communication between S1N330 and a region in S2 of murine coronavirus spike protein is important for virus entry into cells expressing CEACAM1b receptor.

The soluble receptor-resistant (srr) mutants, srr7 and srr11, isolated from a murine coronavirus, mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) JHMV, have an amino acid mutation at positions 1114 (Leu to Phe) and 65 (Leu to His), respectively, in the spike (S) protein. These mutants failed to efficiently infect BHK cells expressing CEACAM1b (BHK-R2), due to their low entry into this cell line, although they infected cells expressing CEACAM1a (BHK-R1) in a manner similar to that of wild-type (wt) JHMV cl-2 (Matsuyama and Taguchi, Virology 273, 80-89, 2000). Following the repeated passage of these mutants through BHK-R2 cells, viruses were no longer isolated from srr11-infected cells, while two distinct mutants, srr7A and srr7B, were obtained from srr7-infected cells. Srr7A and srr7B grew 2 log10 higher than srr7 and induced fusion in BHK-R2 cells, being similar to wt virus. In addition to the amino acid change at position 1114 that stemmed from parental srr7, srr7A and srr7B had mutations around position 280, corresponding to the third region of the S1N330 receptor-binding site (S1N330-III) common to all MHV strains examined thus far. Srr7A and srr7B S proteins showed high fusogenicity in both BHK-R1 and BHK-R2 cells, like the wt virus, while srr7Aa and srr7Ba S proteins, which had mutations in S1N330-III but not at amino acid 1114, exhibited profoundly reduced fusion activity in these cell lines. These findings suggest that communication between S1N330-III and the amino acid at position 1114 is important for efficient fusion activity in BHK-R2 cells. S1N330-III is a possible region in the S1 involved in viral entry into cells.

Animals↗

Receptor-induced conformational changes of murine coronavirus spike protein.

Although murine coronavirus mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) enters cells by virus-cell membrane fusion triggered by its spike (S) protein, it is not well known how the S protein participates in fusion events. We reported that the soluble form of MHV receptor (soMHVR) transformed a nonfusogenic S protein into a fusogenic one (F. Taguchi and S. Matsuyama, J. Virol. 76:950-958, 2002). In the present study, we demonstrate that soMHVR induces the conformational changes of the S protein, as shown by the proteinase digestion test. A cl-2 mutant, srr7, of the MHV JHM virus (JHMV) was digested with proteinase K after treatment with soMHVR, and the resultant S protein was analyzed by Western blotting using monoclonal antibody (MAb) 10G, specific for the membrane-anchored S2 subunit. A 58-kDa fragment, encompassing the two heptad repeats in S2, was detected when srr7 was digested after soMHVR treatment, while no band was seen when the virus was untreated. The appearance of the proteinase-resistant fragment was dependent on the temperature and time of srr7 incubation with soMHVR and also on the concentration of soMHVR. Coimmunoprecipitation indicated that the direct binding of soMHVR to srr7 S protein induced these conformational changes; this was also suggested by the inhibition of the changes following pretreatment of soMHVR with anti-MHVR MAb CC1. soMHVR induced conformational changes of the S proteins of wild-type (wt) JHMV cl-2, as well as revertants from srr7, srr7A and srr7B; however, a major proportion of these S proteins were resistant to proteinase K even without soMHVR treatment. The implications of this proteinase-resistant fraction are discussed. This is the first report on receptor-induced conformational changes of the membrane-anchored fragment of the coronavirus S protein.

Animals↗

Soluble receptor potentiates receptor-independent infection by murine coronavirus.

Mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) infection spreads from MHV-infected DBT cells, which express the MHV receptor CEACAM1 (MHVR), to BHK cells, which are devoid of the receptor, by intercellular membrane fusion (MHVR-independent fusion). This mode of infection is a property of wild-type (wt) JHMV cl-2 virus but is not seen in cultures infected with the mutant virus JHMV srr7. In this study, we show that soluble MHVR (soMHVR) potentiates MHVR-independent fusion in JHMV srr7-infected cultures. Thus, in the presence of soMHVR, JHMV srr7-infected DBT cells overlaid onto BHK cells induce BHK cell syncytia and the spread of JHMV srr7 infection. This does not occur in the absence of soMHVR. soMHVR also enhanced wt virus MHVR-independent fusion. These effects were dependent on the concentration of soMHVR in the culture and were specifically blocked by the anti-MHVR monoclonal antibody CC1. Together with these observations, direct binding of soMHVR to the virus spike (S) glycoprotein as revealed by coimmunoprecipitation demonstrated that the effect is mediated by the binding of soMHVR to the S protein. Furthermore, fusion of BHK cells expressing the JHMV srr7 S protein was also induced by soMHVR. These results indicated that the binding of soMHVR to the S protein expressed on the DBT cell surface potentiates the fusion of MHV-infected DBT cells with nonpermissive BHK cells. We conclude that the binding of soMHVR to the S protein converts the S protein to a fusion-active form competent to mediate cell-cell fusion, in a fashion similar to the fusion of virus and cell membranes.

Animals↗

[Vitamin K2 therapy for myelodysplastic syndrome].

Vitamin K2 is reported to induce apoptosis or differentiation of leukemic cell lines in vitro. We administered a vitamin K2 analog, menatetrenone, at 45 mg daily to 23 patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS): 13 patients with RA, 2 with RARS, 6 with RAEB and 2 with RAEB-T. Good response (GR) and partial response (PR) were defined as an increase of hemoglobin concentration exceeding 2 g/dl and 1-2 g/dl without transfusion, respectively. Six of the RA patients showed improvement of anemia (GR, 3 patients; PR, 3 patients). RA patients who did not have a hypocellular bone marrow and were transfusion-independent tended to be responsive to vitamin K2 therapy in combination with vitamin D3 or anabolic steroids. No adverse effect of vitamin K2 was observed, and the time required to obtain the hematological response was short, being 3 months on average. We believe that vitamin K2 therapy has potential as a treatment for patients with MDS.

Adult↗

Functional analysis of an epitope in the S2 subunit of the murine coronavirus spike protein: involvement in fusion activity.

The monoclonal antibody (MAb) 5B19.2, which has virus-neutralizing and fusion inhibition activities, binds to an epitope (S2A) consisting of nine hydrophobic amino acids in the S2 subunit of the mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) spike (S) protein. This suggests that the S2A epitope may be involved in binding the virus to the MHV receptor and/or in virus-cell fusion. Co-immunoprecipitation analyses demonstrated that while the binding of virus to the receptor was blocked by anti-S1 MAbs, it was not blocked by the S2A antiserum, indicating that S2A was not involved in receptor-binding. The S proteins prepared in this study with mutations in the S2A epitope were either fusogenic or non-fusogenic and their fusogenicity did not correlate with the hydrophobic feature of the S2A epitope. All of these wt and mutated S proteins were similarly transported onto the cell membrane independent of their fusogenicity capability. These results suggest that S2A may mediate the fusion activity of the MHV S protein during virus entry into cells.

Amino Acid Sequence↗