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Structural biology of Zika virus and other flaviviruses

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology volume 25, pages 13–20 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Zika virus (ZIKV) is an enveloped, icosahedral flavivirus that has structural and functional similarities to other human flavivirus pathogens such as dengue (DENV), West Nile (WNV) and Japanese encephalitis (JEV) viruses. ZIKV infections have been linked to fetal microcephaly and the paralytic Guillain–Barré syndrome. This review provides a comparative structural analysis of the assembly, maturation and host-cell entry of ZIKV with other flaviviruses, especially DENV. We also discuss the mechanisms of neutralization by antibodies.

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Fig. 1: Mature and immature ZIKV.
Fig. 2: Life cycle of the Flaviviridae.
Fig. 3: Maturation of flaviviruses.
Fig. 4: Packing of the E protein in mature flavivirus virions.
Fig. 5: Comparison of conservation of flavivirus E-protein structure and sequence.

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Acknowledgements

Much of the work described here was supported by NIH grant AI076331 to M.G.R. and R.J.K. We are also grateful for NIH grant AI073755 awarded to M.S. Diamond (PI) with a subaward to M.G.R. and R.J.K. We thank the Purdue Cryo-EM facility for their help and support. We are also grateful to the Purdue Rosen Center for Advanced Computing for research computing support over many decades. We have greatly benefitted from discussions and help from numerous postdocs over the years (in particular, B. Kaufmann and T. Klose) as well as graduate students in both the Kuhn and Rossmann faculty research labs at Purdue. We thank S. Kelly for help in preparing this manuscript.

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  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    S. Saif Hasan, Madhumati Sevvana, Richard J. Kuhn & Michael G. Rossmann

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  1. S. Saif Hasan
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  2. Madhumati Sevvana
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S.S.H. and M.G.R. wrote the paper. R.J.K. edited the paper. M.S. reviewed the text and contributed Fig. 5a.

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Correspondence to Michael G. Rossmann.

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Hasan, S.S., Sevvana, M., Kuhn, R.J. et al. Structural biology of Zika virus and other flaviviruses. Nat Struct Mol Biol 25, 13–20 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-017-0010-8

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