Using a 3-O-Sulfated Heparan Sulfate Octasaccharide to Inhibit the Entry of Herpes Simplex Virus 1

Abstract

Heparan sulfate (HS) is a highly sulfated polysaccharide and is present in large quantities on the cell surface and in the extracellular matrix. Herpes simplex virus type 1(HSV-1) utilizes a specialized cell surface HS, known as 3-O-sulfated HS, as an entry receptor to establish infection. Here, we exploit an approach to inhibit HSV-1 infection by using a 3-O-sulfated octasaccharide, mimicking the active domain of the entry receptor. The 3-O-sulfated octasaccharide was synthesized by incubating a heparin octasaccharide (3-OH octasaccharide) with HS 3-O-sulfotransferase isoform 3. The resultant 3-O-sulfated octasaccharide has a structure of ΔUA2S-GlcNS6S-IdoUA2S-GlcNS6S-IdoUA2S-GlcNS3S6S-IdoUA2S-GlcNS6S (where ΔUA is 4-deoxy-α-l-threo-hex-4-enopyranosyluronic acid, GlcN is d-glucosamine and IdoUA is l-iduronic acid). Results from cell based assays revealed that the 3-O-sulfated octasaccharide has stronger activity in blocking HSV-1 infection than that of the 3-OH octasaccharide, suggesting that the inhibition of HSV-1 infection requires a unique sulfation moiety. Our results suggest the feasibility of inhibiting HSV-1 infection by blocking viral entry with a specific oligosaccharide.