Glycan Nanostructures of Human Coronaviruses

Guo, Wanru; Lakshminarayanan, Harini; Rodriguez-Palacios, Alex; Salata, Robert A; Xu, Kaijin; Draz, Mohamed S

Human coronaviruses present a substantial global disease burden, causing damage to populations’ health, economy, and social well-being. Glycans are one of the main structural components of all microbes and organismic structures, including viruses—playing multiple essential roles in virus infection and immunity. Studying and understanding virus glycans at the nanoscale provide new insights into the diagnosis and treatment of viruses. Glycan nanostructures are considered potential targets for molecular diagnosis, antiviral therapeutics, and the development of vaccines. This review article describes glycan nanostructures (eg, glycoproteins and glycolipids) that exist in cells, subcellular structures, and microbes. We detail the structure, characterization, synthesis, and functions of virus glycans. Furthermore, we describe the glycan nanostructures of different human coronaviruses, such as human coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E), human coronavirus OC43 (HCoV-OC43), severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV), human coronavirus NL63 (HCoV-NL63), human coronavirus HKU1 (HCoV-HKU1), the Middle East respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and how glycan nanotechnology can be useful to prevent and combat human coronaviruses infections, along with possibilities that are not yet explored.