Ebola virus’s glycoproteins and entry mechanism.

Abstract

Ebola virus glycoprotein (GP) is the only protein that is expressed on the surface of the virus. The GP proteins play critical roles in the entry of virus into cell and in the evasion of the immune system. The GP gene transcript to membrane GP is constituted of two subunits GP1 and GP2,and the secretory GP (sGP). The main function of GP1/2 is to attach virus to target cell’s membrane, whereas sGP has multiple functions on Ebola pathogen‐ esis, such as inactivate neutrophils through CD16b causing lymphocyte apoptosis and vascular dysregulation. There are many studies that focused on better understanding the GP mechanism and aim at developing new antibodies and drugs such as VSV-EBOV, cAd3-EBO Z, rVSVN4CT1 VesiculoVax, ‘C-peptide’ based on the GP2 C-heptad repeat region (CHR) targeted to endosomes (Tat-Ebo) and MBX2270. In this chapter, we discuss the Ebola viral glycoproteins, genomic organization, synthesis, and their roles and functions. On the other hand, we treat the mechanisms of pathogenicity associated with Ebola GPs. Keywords: EBOLA, virus, glycoprotein (GP), entry, mechanism, pathogenesis, structure