Thus, it is likely that the antiviral activity BIBW2992 ic50 of the CL-46 NCRD significantly exceeds that of SP-D. We also confirm the substantially greater mannan-binding activity of CL-43. We attempted to determine the structural

differences that could account for increased antiviral activity of these proteins. The ridges around the primary carbohydrate binding site show considerable divergence among collectins, perhaps in response to a need to recognize different pathogens. One obvious difference between all serum collectins and SP-A or SP-D is the presence of a hydrophobic residue at position 343. We have shown that the R343V or R343I mutants of hSP-D-NCRD have greatly increased antiviral GS-1101 molecular weight activity compared to the wild-type hSP-D-NCRD [28]; hence, this is one important difference accounting for the increased antiviral activity of bovine serum collectin NCRD. Another difference relates to the presence of small amino acid insertions immediately N-terminal to residue 325. As CL-43 had particularly strong mannan-binding and antiviral activity, for this paper we produced and tested addition of the RAK sequence to the R343V (or R343I) mutant of hSP-D-NCRD. Although the combined mutations greatly increased mannan-binding activity, antiviral activity was decreased when compared to R343V (or R343I). This finding indicates that the mechanisms of binding to mannan

and to IAV, while similar, are not identical and involve a complex interplay between residues on the two ridges that flank the primary carbohydrate binding site. High mannose oligosaccharides on the IAV hemagglutinin are important for recognition and neutralization by SP-D [6]. Important Arachidonate 15-lipoxygenase differences in the detailed structure of oligomannose sugar chains on IAV and mannan, or in the macromolecular patterns of sugars of mannose-rich sugars on IAV and mannan, may account for the differences in recognition of these ligands by specific NCRD. It is

of interest that binding of mAb 246-02 and 3C3-C-20, which is reduced to RAK, is partially or fully restored for RAK+R343V, implying that the combination of the insertion and substitution restore a structural feature in hSP-D-NCRD that is recognized by these mAb. We plan, in future studies, to determine the crystal structures of these and other mutant versions of the SP-D NCRD. Although the RAK+R343V (or I) double mutants did not result in increased antiviral activity compared to single mutants, we are pursuing other strategies including substitutions for D325 in combination with the R343V substitution and have found increased activity (Hartshorn KL, Seaton B, and Crouch EC, unpublished data). Hence, we still feel the approach of altering residues on the ridges flanking both sides of the lectin site is a productive approach to developing NCRD that could be of therapeutic use in IAV.