Abstact

Human norovirus frequently causes outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis. Although discovered more than five decades ago, antiviral development has, until recently, been hampered by the lack of a reliable human norovirus cell culture system. Nevertheless, a lot of pathogenesis studies were accomplished using murine norovirus (MNV), which can be grown routinely in cell culture. In this study, we analyzed a sizeable library of nanobodies that were raised against the murine norovirus virion with the main purpose of developing nanobody-based inhibitors. We discovered two types of neutralizing nanobodies and analyzed the inhibition mechanisms using X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), and cell culture techniques. The first type bound on the top region of the protruding (P) domain. Interestingly, this nanobody binding region closely overlapped the MNV receptor-binding site and collectively shared numerous P domain-binding residues. In addition, we showed that these nanobodies competed with the soluble receptor, and this action blocked virion attachment to cultured cells. The second type bound at a dimeric interface on the lower side of the P dimer. We discovered that these nanobodies disrupted a structural change in the capsid associated with binding cofactors (i.e., metal cations/bile acid). Indeed, we found that capsids underwent major conformational changes following addition of Mg2+ or Ca2+ Ultimately, these nanobodies directly obstructed a structural modification reserved for a postreceptor attachment stage. Altogether, our new data show that nanobody-based inhibition could occur by blocking functional and structural capsid properties.IMPORTANCE This research discovered and analyzed two different types of MNV-neutralizing nanobodies. The top-binding nanobodies sterically inhibited the receptor-binding site, whereas the dimeric-binding nanobodies interfered with a structural modification associated with cofactor binding. Moreover, we found that the capsid contained a number of vulnerable regions that were essential for viral replication. In fact, the capsid appeared to be organized in a state of flux, which could be important for cofactor/receptor-binding functions. Blocking these capsid-binding events with nanobodies directly inhibited essential capsid functions. Moreover, a number of MNV-specific nanobody binding epitopes were comparable to human norovirus-specific nanobody inhibitors. Therefore, this additional structural and inhibition information could be further exploited in the development of human norovirus antivirals.