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Catching the common cold

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 11, pages 388–390 (2004)Cite this article

The structure of a minor group human rhinovirus in complex with a receptor fragment reveals how the ligand-binding repeats of LDL receptor family proteins bind to these viruses and also suggests a preferred mode for partner recognition by these repeats.

Human rhinoviruses, members of the Picornaviridae family, are a frequent cause of the common cold. Most rhinoviruses fall into two groups: a major group, members of which use intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) as their receptor1,2, and a minor group, members of which bind proteins of the LDL receptor family3. In this issue of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Verdaguer, Blaas and colleagues4 report the cocrystal structure of a minor group human rhinovirus HRV-2 in complex with a receptor fragment from the very low-density lipoprotein receptor (VLDLR) at a resolution of 3.5 Å. This report presents the first high-resolution structure of a picornavirus in complex with a protein cell-surface receptor, an advance of general interest to virologists and lipoprotein receptor researchers alike.

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Figure 1: Structures of HRV–receptor complexes.
Figure 2: Virus-receptor and intramolecular LDL receptor interfaces.
Figure 3

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Acknowledgements

I am deeply indebted to D. Filman for back-calculation of the maps used to prepare Figure 1, and to both D. Filman and D. Bubeck for help with rendering the maps for the figure. I am also grateful to N. Verdaguer and colleagues for releasing their coordinates before publication. S.C.B. is supported by grants from the US National Institutes of Health (HL61001) and is a Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences and an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association.

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  1. Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, NRB 652D, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA

    Stephen C Blacklow

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Blacklow, S. Catching the common cold. Nat Struct Mol Biol 11, 388–390 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb0504-388

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