viruses Article N-Glycolylneuraminic Acid in Animal Models for Human Influenza A Virus Cindy M. Spruit 1 , Nikoloz Nemanichvili 2, Masatoshi Okamatsu 3, Hiromu Takematsu 4, Geert-Jan Boons 1,5 and Robert P. de Vries 1,* 1 Department of Chemical Biology & Drug Discovery, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, 3584 CG Utrecht, The Netherlands;
[email protected] (C.M.S.);
[email protected] (G.-J.B.) 2 Division of Pathology, Department of Biomolecular Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, 3584 CL Utrecht, The Netherlands;
[email protected] 3 Laboratory of Microbiology, Department of Disease Control, Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0818, Hokkaido, Japan; infl
[email protected] 4 Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Faculty of Medical Technology, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Fujita Health University, 1-98 Dengakugakubo, Kutsukake, Toyoake 470-1192, Aichi, Japan;
[email protected] 5 Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: The first step in influenza virus infection is the binding of hemagglutinin to sialic acid- containing glycans present on the cell surface. Over 50 different sialic acid modifications are known, of which N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac) and N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc) are the two main species. Animal models with α2,6 linked Neu5Ac in the upper respiratory tract, similar to humans, are preferred to enable and mimic infection with unadapted human influenza A viruses. Animal models that are currently most often used to study human influenza are mice and ferrets.