Enveloped viruses encompass some of the most common human pathogens causing infections of different severity, ranging from no or very few symptoms to lethal disease as seen with the viral hemorrhagic fevers. All enveloped viruses possess an envelope membrane derived from the host cell, modified with often heavily glycosylated virally encoded glycoproteins important for infectivity, viral particle formation and immune evasion. While N-linked glycosylation of viral envelope proteins is well characterized with respect to location, structure and site occupancy, information on mucin-type O-glycosylation of these proteins is less comprehensive. Studies on viral glycosylation are often limited to analysis of recombinant proteins that in most cases are produced in cell lines with a glycosylation capacity different from the capacity of the host cells. The glycosylation pattern of the produced recombinant glycoproteins might therefore be different from the pattern on native viral proteins. In this review, we provide a historical perspective on analysis of viral glycosylation, and summarize known roles of glycans in the biology of enveloped human viruses. In addition, we describe how to overcome the analytical limitations by using a global approach based on mass spectrometry to identify viral O-glycosylation in virus-infected cell lysates using the complex enveloped virus herpes simplex virus type 1 as a model. We underscore that glycans often pay important contributions to overall protein structure, function and immune recognition, and that glycans represent a crucial determinant for vaccine design. High throughput analysis of glycosylation on relevant glycoprotein formulations, as well as data compilation and sharing is therefore important to identify consensus glycosylation patterns for translational applications.

Mucin type O‐glycosylation is one of the most diverse types of glycosylation, playing essential roles in tissue development and homeostasis. In complex organisms, O‐GalNAc glycans comprise a substantial proportion of the glycocalyx, with defined functions in hemostatic, gastrointestinal, and respiratory systems. Furthermore, O‐GalNAc glycans are important players in host–microbe interactions, and changes in O‐glycan composition are associated with certain diseases and metabolic conditions, which in some instances can be used for diagnosis or therapeutic intervention. Breakthroughs in O‐glycobiology have gone hand in hand with the development of new technologies, such as advancements in mass spectrometry, as well as facilitation of genetic engineering in mammalian cell lines. High‐throughput O‐glycoproteomics have enabled us to draw a comprehensive map of O‐glycosylation, and mining this information has supported the definition and confirmation of functions related to site‐specific O‐glycans. This includes protection from proteolytic cleavage, as well as modulation of binding affinity or receptor function. Yet, there is still much to discover, and among the important next challenges will be to define the context‐dependent functions of O‐glycans in different stages of cellular differentiation, cellular metabolism, host–microbiome interactions, and in disease. In this review, we present the achievements and the promises in O‐GalNAc glycobiology driven by technological advances in analytical methods, genetic engineering, and systems biology.

Heparan sulfate (HS) is a cell surface polysaccharide recently identified as a coreceptor with the ACE2 protein for the S1 spike protein on SARS-CoV-2 virus, providing a tractable new therapeutic target. Clinically used heparins demonstrate an inhibitory activity but have an anticoagulant activity and are supply-limited, necessitating alternative solutions. Here, we show that synthetic HS mimetic pixatimod (PG545), a cancer drug candidate, binds and destabilizes the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein receptor binding domain and directly inhibits its binding to ACE2, consistent with molecular modeling identification of multiple molecular contacts and overlapping pixatimod and ACE2 binding sites. Assays with multiple clinical isolates of SARS-CoV-2 virus show that pixatimod potently inhibits the infection of monkey Vero E6 cells and physiologically relevant human bronchial epithelial cells at safe therapeutic concentrations. Pixatimod also retained broad potency against variants of concern (VOC) including B.1.1.7 (Alpha), B.1.351 (Beta), B.1.617.2 (Delta), and B.1.1.529 (Omicron). Furthermore, in a K18-hACE2 mouse model, pixatimod significantly reduced SARS-CoV-2 viral titers in the upper respiratory tract and virus-induced weight loss. This demonstration of potent anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity tolerant to emerging mutations establishes proof-of-concept for targeting the HS–Spike protein–ACE2 axis with synthetic HS mimetics and provides a strong rationale for clinical investigation of pixatimod as a potential multimodal therapeutic for COVID-19.

Enveloped viruses hijack not only the host translation processes, but also its glycosylation machinery, and to a variable extent cover viral surface proteins with tolerogenic host-like structures. SARS-CoV-2 surface protein S presents as a trimer on the viral surface and is covered by a dense shield of N-linked glycans, and a few O-glycosites have been reported. The location of O-glycans is controlled by a large family of initiating enzymes with variable expression in cells and tissues and hence is difficult to predict. Here, we used our well-established O-glycoproteomic workflows to map the precise positions of O-linked glycosylation sites on three different entities of protein S—insect cell or human cell-produced ectodomains, or insect cell derived receptor binding domain (RBD). In total 25 O-glycosites were identified, with similar patterns in the two ectodomains of different cell origin, and a distinct pattern of the monomeric RBD. Strikingly, 16 out of 25 O-glycosites were located within three amino acids from known N-glycosites. However, O-glycosylation was primarily found on peptides that were unoccupied by N-glycans, and otherwise had low overall occupancy. This suggests possible complementary functions of O-glycans in immune shielding and negligible effects of O-glycosylation on subunit vaccine design for SARS-CoV-2.

Herpesviruses are among the most complex and widespread viruses, infection and propagation of which depend on envelope proteins. These proteins serve as mediators of cell entry as well as modulators of the immune response and are attractive vaccine targets. Although envelope proteins are known to carry glycans, little is known about the distribution, nature, and functions of these modifications. This is particularly true for O-glycans, thus we have recently developed a "bottom-up" mass spectrometry-based technique for mapping O-glycosylation sites on herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1). We found wide distribution of O-glycans on HSV-1 glycoproteins and demonstrated that elongated O-glycans were essential for HSV-1 propagation. Here, we applied our proteome-wide discovery platform for mapping O-glycosites on representative and clinically significant members of the herpesvirus family -- varicella zoster virus (VZV), human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). We identified a large number of O-glycosites distributed on most envelope proteins in all viruses and further demonstrated conserved patterns of O-glycans on distinct homologous proteins. Since glycosylation is highly dependent on the host cell, we tested VZV-infected cell lysates and clinically isolated virus and found evidence of consistent O-glycosites. These results present a comprehensive view of herpesvirus O-glycosylation and point to the widespread occurrence of O-glycans in regions of envelope proteins important for virus entry, formation, and recognition by the host's immune system. This knowledge enables dissection of specific functional roles of individual glycosites, and, moreover, provides a framework for design of glycoprotein vaccines with representative glycosylation.