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Human adenovirus serotype 26 (Ad26) is used as a gene-based vaccine against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and HIV-1. However, its primary receptor portfolio remains controversial, potentially including sialic acid, coxsackie and adenovirus receptor (CAR), integrins, and CD46. We and others have shown that Ad26 can use CD46, but these observations were questioned on the basis of the inability to cocrystallize Ad26 fiber with CD46. Recent work demonstrated that Ad26 binds CD46 with its hexon protein rather than its fiber. We examined the functional consequences of Ad26 for infection in vitro and in vivo. Ectopic expression of human CD46 on Chinese hamster ovary cells increased Ad26 infection significantly. Deletion of the complement control protein domain CCP1 or CCP2 or the serine-threonine-proline (STP) region of CD46 reduced infection. Comparing wild-type and sialic acid-deficient CHO cells, we show that the usage of CD46 is independent of its sialylation status. Ad26 transduction was increased in CD46 transgenic mice after intramuscular (i.m.) injection but not after intranasal (i.n.) administration. Ad26 transduction was 10-fold lower than Ad5 transduction after intratumoral (i.t.) injection of CD46-expressing tumors. Ad26 transduction of liver was 1,000-fold lower than that ofAd5 after intravenous (i.v.) injection. These data demonstrate the use of CD46 by Ad26 in certain situations but also show that the receptor has little consequence by other routes of administration. Finally, i.v. injection of high doses of Ad26 into CD46 mice induced release of liver enzymes into the bloodstream and reduced white blood cell counts but did not induce thrombocytopenia. This suggests that Ad26 virions do not induce direct clotting side effects seen during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination with this serotype of adenovirus. IMPORTANCE The human species D Ad26 is being investigated as a low-seroprevalence vector for oncolytic virotherapy and gene-based vaccination against HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2. However, there is debate in the literature about its tropism and receptor utilization, which directly influence its efficiency for certain applications. This work was aimed at determining which receptor(s) this virus uses for infection and its role in virus biology, vaccine efficacy, and, importantly, vaccine safety.

The Coxsackie- and adenovirus receptor (CAR) mediates homophilic cell-cell contacts and susceptibility to both human pathogenic viruses through its membrane-distal immunoglobulin domain. In the present study, we screened five missense variants of the human CAR gene for their influence on adenovector or Coxsackievirus entry into Chinese hamster ovary cells. The CAR variants facilitated virus internalisation to a similar extent as wild type CAR. This underlines CAR's presumed invariance and essential physiological role in embryogenesis., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Adenovirus based vectors are of increasing importance for wide ranging therapeutic applications. As vaccines, vectors derived from human adenovirus species D serotypes 26 and 48 (HAdV-D26/48) are demonstrating promising efficacy as protective platforms against infectious diseases. Significant clinical progress has been made, yet definitive studies underpinning mechanisms of entry, infection, and receptor usage are currently lacking. Here, we perform structural and biological analysis of the receptor binding fiber-knob protein of HAdV-D26/48, reporting crystal structures, and modelling putative interactions with two previously suggested attachment receptors, CD46 and Coxsackie and Adenovirus Receptor (CAR). We provide evidence of a low affinity interaction with CAR, with modelling suggesting affinity is attenuated through extended, semi-flexible loop structures, providing steric hindrance. Conversely, in silico and in vitro experiments are unable to provide evidence of interaction between HAdV-D26/48 fiber-knob with CD46, or with Desmoglein 2. Our findings provide insight into the cell-virus interactions of HAdV-D26/48, with important implications for the design and engineering of optimised Ad-based therapeutics.

The coxsackie and adenovirus receptor (CAR) is a transmembrane receptor that plays a key role in controlling adhesion between adjacent epithelial cells. CAR is highly expressed in epithelial cells and was originally identified as a primary receptor for adenovirus cell binding. However, studies over the last 10 years have demonstrated that CAR plays a key role in co-ordinating cell-cell adhesion under homeostatic conditions including neuronal and cardiac development and cell junction stability; it has also been implicated in pathological states such as cancer growth and leukocyte transmigration during inflammation. Here we provide an overview of the functions of CAR as an adhesion molecule and highlight the emerging important role for CAR in controlling both recruitment of immune cells and in tumorigenesis., (Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Coxsackie-B-viruses (CVB) cause a wide variety of diseases, ranging from mild syndromes to life-threatening conditions such as pancreatitis, myocarditis, meningitis and encephalitis. Especially newborns and young infants develop severe diseases and long-term sequelae may occur among survivors. Due to lack of specific antiviral therapy the current treatment of CVB infection is limited to symptomatic treatment. Here we analyzed the antiviral activity of a soluble receptor fusion protein, containing the extracellular part of the coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor (CAR) fused to the constant domain of the human IgG - sCAR-Fc - against laboratory and clinical CVB strains. We found a high overall antiviral activity of sCAR-Fc against various prototypic laboratory strains of CVB, with an inhibition of viral replication up to 3 orders of magnitude (99.9%) at a concentration of 2.5 μg/ml. These include isolates that are not dependent on CAR for infection and isolates that are resistant against pleconaril, the currently most promising anti-CVB therapeutic. A complete inhibition was observed using higher concentration of sCAR-Fc. Further analysis of 23 clinical CVB isolates revealed overall high antiviral efficiency (up to 99.99%) of sCAR-Fc. In accordance with previous data, our results confirm the strong antiviral activity of sCAR-Fc against laboratory CVB strains and demonstrate for the first time that sCAR-Fc is also highly efficient at neutralizing clinical CVB isolates. Importantly, during the sCAR-Fc inhibition experiments, no naturally occurring resistant mutants were observed., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Unlabelled: The coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor (CAR) is a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily (IgSF) and functions as a receptor for coxsackie B viruses (CVBs). The extracellular portion of CAR comprises two glycosylated immunoglobulin-like domains, D1 and D2. CAR-D1 binds to the virus and is essential for virus infection; however, it is not known whether D2 is also important for infection, and the role of glycosylation has not been explored. To understand the function of these structural components in CAR-mediated CVB3 infection, we generated a panel of human (h) CAR deletion and substitution mutants and analyzed their functionality as CVB receptors, examining both virus binding and replication. Lack of glycosylation of the CAR-D1 or -D2 domains did not adversely affect CVB3 binding or infection, indicating that the glycosylation of CAR is not required for its receptor functions. Deletion of the D2 domain reduced CVB3 binding, with a proportionate reduction in the efficiency of virus infection. Replacement of D2 with the homologous D2 domain from chicken CAR, or with the heterologous type C2 immunoglobulin-like domain from IgSF11, another IgSF member, fully restored receptor function; however, replacement of CAR-D2 with domains from CD155 or CD80 restored function only in part. These data indicate that glycosylation of the extracellular domain of hCAR plays no role in CVB3 receptor function and that CAR-D2 is not specifically required. The D2 domain may function largely as a spacer permitting virus access to D1; however, the data may also suggest that D2 affects virus binding by influencing the conformation of D1., Importance: An important step in virus infection is the initial interaction of the virus with its cellular receptor. Although the role in infection of the extracellular CAR-D1, cytoplasmic, and transmembrane domains have been analyzed extensively, nothing is known about the function of CAR-D2 and the extracellular glycosylation of CAR. Our data indicate that glycosylation of the extracellular CAR domain has only minor importance for the function of CAR as CVB3 receptor and that the D2 domain is not essential per se but contributes to receptor function by promoting the exposure of the D1 domain on the cell surface. These results contribute to our understanding of the coxsackievirus-receptor interactions., (Copyright © 2016, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.)

Most adenoviruses attach to host cells by means of the protruding fiber protein that binds to host cells via the coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor (CAR) protein. Human adenovirus type 52 (HAdV-52) is one of only three gastroenteritis-causing HAdVs that are equipped with two different fiber proteins, one long and one short. Here we show, by means of virion-cell binding and infection experiments, that HAdV-52 can also attach to host cells via CAR, but most of the binding depends on sialylated glycoproteins. Glycan microarray, flow cytometry, surface plasmon resonance and ELISA analyses reveal that the terminal knob domain of the long fiber (52LFK) binds to CAR, and the knob domain of the short fiber (52SFK) binds to sialylated glycoproteins. X-ray crystallographic analysis of 52SFK in complex with 2-O-methylated sialic acid combined with functional studies of knob mutants revealed a new sialic acid binding site compared to other, known adenovirus:glycan interactions. Our findings shed light on adenovirus biology and may help to improve targeting of adenovirus-based vectors for gene therapy.

This study aimed at elucidating how Coxsackie B virus (CVB) perturbs the host's microRNA (miRNA) regulatory pathways that lead to antiviral events. The results of miRNA profiling in rat pancreatic cells infection models revealed that rat rno-miR-466d was up-regulated in CVB infection. Furthermore, in silico studies showed that Coxsackie virus and Adenovirus Receptor (CAR), a cellular receptor, was one of the rno-miR-466d targets involved in viral entry. Subsequent experiments also proved that both the rno-miR-466d and the human hsa-miR-466, which are orthologs of the miR-467 gene family, could effectively down-regulate the levels of rat and human CAR protein expression, respectively., (Copyright © 2014 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Unlabelled: The immunoglobulin superfamily protein receptors for poliovirus, human rhinovirus, and coxsackievirus B (CVB) serve to bind the viruses to target cells and to facilitate the release of the virus genome by catalyzing the transition from the mature infectious virus to the A-particle uncoating intermediate. Receptor binding sites characterized by two equilibrium dissociation constants have been identified. The site with higher affinity is best observed at warmer temperatures and appears to correlate with the reversible conformational state in which the capsid is permeable to small molecules and peptides that are buried in the crystal structures are exposed. Measurements of CVB conversion to inactive particles over time in the presence of varied concentrations of soluble coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor showed that the observed first-order rate constant varies with receptor concentration. The dose-response data, previously modeled as the sum of first-order reactions, have been used to evaluate models for the receptor-catalyzed conversion of CVB that include the high- and low-affinity binding sites associated with capsid breathing. Allosteric models wherein receptor binding shifts the equilibrium toward the open capsid conformation, in which the high-affinity binding site is available, best fit the data., Importance: This paper compares models that relate the structural, mechanistic, and kinetic details of receptor-virus interactions known from previous work with human enteroviruses. New models are derived using recent results from receptor-catalyzed conversion of coxsackievirus B3 to non-infectious A-particles. Of those considered, the acceptable models include the capsid breathing cycle and two conformation-dependent receptor binding sites. The results indicate that the receptor enhancement of virus conversion to A-particles involves allostery through conformation selection., (Copyright © 2014, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.)

The coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor (CAR) serves as a docking factor for some adenovirus (AdV) types and group B coxsackieviruses. Its role in AdV internalization is unclear as studies suggest that its intracellular domain is dispensable for some AdV infection. We previously showed that in motor neurons, AdV induced CAR internalization and co-transport in axons, suggesting that CAR was linked to endocytic and long-range transport machineries. Here, we characterized the mechanisms of CAR endocytosis in neurons and neuronal cells. We found that CAR internalization was lipid microdomain-, actin-, and dynamin-dependent, and subsequently followed by CAR degradation in lysosomes. Moreover, ligands that disrupted the homodimeric CAR interactions in its D1 domains triggered an internalization cascade involving sequences in its intracellular tail.

The coxsackie-adenovirus receptor (CAR) is the prototype of a small subfamily of IgCAMs composed of CAR itself, CLMP, BT-IgSF, ESAM, CTX, and A33. These six proteins are composed of one V-set and one C2-set Ig domains and a single transmembrane helix followed by a cytoplasmic stretch. They are localized in several tissues and organs and--except for ESAM, CTX, and A33--are expressed in the developing brain. CAR becomes downregulated at early postnatal stages and is absent from the adult brain. CAR, CLMP, and BT-IgSF mediate homotypic aggregation. Interestingly, cell adhesion experiments, binding studies, and crystallographic investigations on the extracellular domain reveal a flexible ectodomain for CAR that mediates homophilic and heterophilic binding. CAR has been extensively investigated in the context of gene therapy and diseases, while research on BT-IgSF and CLMP is at an early stage. Several mouse models as well as studies on patient tissues revealed an essential role for CAR in (1) the development of cardiac, renal, lymphatic, and intestinal tissue; (2) muscle pathology, remodeling, and regeneration; (3) tumor genesis/suppression and metastatic progression; and (4) in virus-mediated infections and gene therapy. Although the in vivo function of CAR in the brain has not been solved its developmentally regulated expression pattern in the brain as well as its function as CAM suggests that CAR might be implicated in neuronal network formation.

To perform their diverse biological functions the adhesion activities of the cell adhesion molecules of the immunoglobulin superfamily (IgCAMs) might be regulated by local clustering, proteolytical shedding of their ectodomains or rapid recycling to and from the plasma membrane. Another form of regulation of adhesion might be obtained through flexible ectodomains of IgCAMs which adopt distinct conformations and which in turn modulate their adhesion activity. Here, we discuss variations in the conformation of the extracellular domains of CEACAM1 and CAR that might influence their binding and signaling activities. Furthermore, we concentrate on alternative splicing of single domains and short segments in the extracellular regions of L1 subfamily members that might affect the organization of the N-terminal located Ig-like domains. In particular, we discuss variations of the linker sequence between Ig-like domains 2 and 3 (D2 and D3) that is required for the horseshoe conformation.

The cellular receptor utilized by adenovirus serotype 26 (Ad26) has remained unclear. Here we show that Ad26 transduction is CD46-dependent and is efficiently blocked by anti-CD46 but not anti-CAR antibodies, demonstrating that Ad26 utilizes CD46 as a primary cellular receptor. Moreover, following Ad26 vaccination of rhesus monkeys, we did not observe sustained activation of peripheral or mucosal vector-specific CD4(+) T lymphocytes. These data contribute to our understanding of Ad26 as a candidate vaccine vector.