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Updated: Aug 23, 2026

Engineering Antiviral Agents via Surface Plasmon Resonance
Published on: June 14, 2022
Twelve receptor molecules attach per viral particle of human rhinovirus serotype 2 via multiple modules
Tünde Konecsni1, Leopold Kremser, Luc Snyers
1Institute for Analytical Chemistry, University of Vienna, Währingerstr. 38, A 1090 Vienna, Austria.
Abstract:
The crystallographic T = 1 (pseudo T = 3) icosahedral symmetry of the human rhinovirus capsid dictates the presence of 60 identical, symmetry related surface structures that are available for antibody and receptor binding. X-ray crystallography has shown that 60 individual very-low density lipoprotein receptor (VLDLR) modules bind to HRV2. Their arrangement around the fivefold axes of the virion suggested that tandem oligomers of such modules could attach simultaneously to symmetry-related sites. By resolving virus particles carrying various numbers of artificial recombinant concatemers of VLDLR repeat 3 (V33333) by capillary electrophoresis and extrapolation of the measured mobilities to that at saturation of all binding sites, we present evidence for up to 12 molecules of the concatemer to bind one single virion.
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