Potent neutralization of hepatitis A virus reveals a receptor mimic mechanism and the receptor recognition site

Xiangxi Wang1, Ling Zhu2, Minghao Dang3

  • 1National Laboratory of Macromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100101, China; xiangxi@ibp.ac.cn liz@strubi.ox.ac.uk dave@strubi.ox.ac.uk raozh@xtal.tsinghua.edu.cn.

Hepatitis A virus (HAV) infects ∼1.4 million people annually and, although there is a vaccine, there are no licensed therapeutic drugs. HAV is unusually stable (making disinfection problematic) and little is known of how it enters cells and releases its RNA. Here we report a potent HAV-specific monoclonal antibody, R10, which neutralizes HAV infection by blocking attachment to the host cell. High-resolution cryo-EM structures of HAV full and empty particles and of the complex of HAV with R10 Fab reveal the atomic details of antibody binding and point to a receptor recognition site at the pentamer interface. These results, together with our observation that the R10 Fab destabilizes the capsid, suggest the use of a receptor mimic mechanism to neutralize virus infection, providing new opportunities for therapeutic intervention.