5-Propyl-2-deoxyuridine induced interference with glycosylation in herpes simplex virus infected cells. Nature of PdU-induced modifications of N-linked glycans.

In herpes simplex virus-infected (HSV) cells, the antiviral nucleoside analogue 5-n-propyl-2'-deoxyuridine (PdU) may, under certain circumstances, induce a pattern of interference with late steps in formation of N-linked glycans, resulting in increased availability of viral glycoproteins for neutralizing antibodies. The PdU-induced changes in N-linked glycans, released by pronase digestion of the HSV-specified glycoprotein gC-1, were investigated by using lectin affinity chromatography and Bio-Gel P6 gel filtration of glycans, radiolabelled with [3H]galactose or [3H]glucosamine. PdU-treatment of HSV-infected cells totally inhibited addition of sialic acid and reduced the amount of galactose incorporated into N-linked glycans by 70%. In addition, the PDU-treatment caused a decrease in oligosaccharides with affinity for Phaseoulus vulgaris leuco-agglutinin and erythro-agglutinin, and an increase in Lens culinaris lectin (LCA)-binding oligosaccharides, suggesting a PdU-induced shift from multi-branched to moderately branched structures. This shift was also found in HSV-infected B16 mouse melanoma cells, where the large content of multi-branched oligosaccharides contributes to the metastatic potential. The LCA-binding glycans from PdU-treated cells were smaller and contained less galactose units than corresponding structures from untreated cells. In a cell-free system, PdU 5'-monophosphate inhibited the translocation of UDP-GlcNAc, and, to a smaller extent, also the translocation of UDP-galactose into Golgi vesicles, suggesting that nucleotide sugar translocation is one important target for the PdU-induced interference with glycosylation in HSV-infected cells.