Although there are areas of significant sequence divergence, particularly in the N-terminal domains, the C-terminal lectin domains show generally high homology with SP-D. Of interest, we now show that two mAb, 6B2 and 246-08, significantly cross-react with bovine serum collectins. We cannot yet identify the specific sequences recognized by 6B2, 246-04 or -08; however, they appear to be distinct from each other based on varied binding to serum collectin NCRD. Binding to 246-04, 246-08 and 6B2 is not affected by changes in key residues around the lectin site (see Table 2) or by deletion of the neck [31, 40]. It is RAD001 mw possible, therefore, that there are conserved

structural motifs on the back or side surfaces of NCRD of SP-D and bovine collectin CRD. This hypothesis will need to be tested by comparative crystallographic analysis. The conservation of the 246-08 and 6B2 epitopes in serum collectins indicates that they are structurally and/or functionally important sites. We have previously shown that mAb 246-04 and 246-08 enhance activity of hSP-D-NCRD

buy 5-Fluoracil through cross-linking [31]. We now demonstrate that 6B2 can also enhance the antiviral activity of NCRD, probably through a similar cross-linking mechanism. SP-D appears to be particularly dependent on cooperative interactions between NCRD heads for antiviral activity, whereas some other activities are retained to a greater degree in wild-type hSP-D-NCRD trimers [41–43]. Activating antibodies could be used in combination with treatment with NCRD to increase their host defence activity.

Note that cross-linking of the R343V variant of hSP-D-NCRD with either mAb 246-08 or 6B2 results in very potent antiviral activity, which approaches the activity of native dodecamers (see Table 3). Despite genetic and structural relationships between the NCRD of bovine serum collectins and human SP-D, the bovine the serum collectin NCRDs all have significantly increased ability to inhibit IAV. We demonstrate that the CL-43 NCRD and a mutant version of the human SP-D NCRD incorporating key distinctive features surrounding the lectin site of CL-43 (RAK+R343I) have greatly increased binding to mannan. The combined effect of the hydrophobic substitution at R343 and the RAK insertion adjacent to D325 alters both ridges surrounding the primary carbohydrate binding site leading to substantially greater mannan binding than occurs with either R343I or RAK alone. This indicates that the extended binding surface flanking the primary binding site can strongly modulate binding to important polysaccharide ligands. Unexpectedly, the RAK+R343I (or V) combined mutants had reduced viral binding and inhibiting activity compared to R343I (or V) single mutants. This also suggests that oligosaccharide structures on mannan and IAV differ enough to result in differing recognition by some NCRD.