# Functional Role of O-glycosylation of HIV-1

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · 2020 · $461,012

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
 While N-linked carbohydrate is known to comprise a significant portion of the mass of HIV-1 envelope
protein, the dogma has been that O-linked carbohydrate is absent from HIV-1 envelope protein. The
Desrosiers laboratory has now shown unambiguously that a subset of HIV-1 isolates have O-linked
carbohydrate on the V1 region of their gp120 surface glycoprotein. Furthermore, this O-linked carbohydrate is
able to shield virus from recognition by potent broadly-neutralizing antibodies of the V3-glycan class. Our
results suggest that long V1 regions, sometimes with sometimes without O-linked glycosylation, can emerge as
a mechanism to escape neutralizing antibodies similar to the V3-glycan monoclonal antibodies that have been
defined to date. Our proposed studies will better define the characteristics of V1 region sequences that are
predictive of whether an individual sequence is likely to be O-glycosylated. We will determine whether there is
specificity to the blocking effects, i.e. whether one O-glycosylated V1 region potently blocks recognition by one
V3-glycan mAb but not another while a different O-glycosylated V1 region may have different specificities to its
blocking effects. We will use experimental SHIV infection of rhesus monkeys to examine whether there is
selective disadvantage to such long O-glycosylated V1 regions in the absence of such antibodies and to
examine the types of selective pressure that may drive elongation and O-glycosylation of V1 regions.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10012154
- **Project number:** 2R01AI104523-07A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Ronald C Desrosiers
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $461,012
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2013-02-15 → 2025-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10012154

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10012154, Functional Role of O-glycosylation of HIV-1 (2R01AI104523-07A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10012154. Licensed CC0.

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