Chemical Insight Into the Influenza A Virus Hemagglutinin Binding to the Sialoside Revealed by the Fragment Molecular Orbital Method

ABSTRACT

The present mini-review aims first at an introduction to two thermodynamic essentials of the binding between the influenza A virus hemagglutinin (HA) and the cell surface receptor sialoside, (1) the equilibrium 1:1 binding of the HA with the sialoside, (2) the polyvalent effect of the HA binding to the polyvalent sialoside. Second, the review intro-duces the fragment molecular orbital (FMO) studies of the HA-sialoside (1:1) complexes. The recent FMO method with the polarizable continuum model as one of the residue-based energy analysis method has revealed the role of key amino acid residue on the selective HA subtype H3 binding to the sialosides.

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