Rabies virus was found on mouse diaphragms and on cultured chick myotubes in a distribution coinciding with that of the acetylcholine receptor. Treatment of the myotubes with alpha-bungarotoxin and d-tubocurarine before the addition of the virus reduced the number of myotubes that became infected with rabies virus. These findings together suggest that acetylcholine receptors may serve as receptors for rabies virus. The binding of virus to acetylcholine receptors, which are present in high density at the neuromuscular junction, would provide a mechanism whereby the virus could be locally concentrated at sites in proximity to peripheral nerves facilitating subsequent uptake and transfer to the central nervous system.

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A region of the a subunit of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor containing the a-bungarotoxin-binding domain was mapped on the primary amino acid sequence in relation to asparagine-141, the presumed site of N-linked glycosylation. Proteolytic fragments of the a subunit, immobilized onto positively charged membrane filters, that bind 125I-labeled bungarotoxin were further analyzed on the basis of the size of the fragments and the presence of asparagine-141 as determined by susceptibility to digestion with endoglycosidase H. The bungarotoxin-binding site was found not to reside between amino acid residues 1 and 140 since bungarotoxinbinding fragments that are considerably larger than 140 amino acids and lack N-linked oligosaccharide chains were detected. The size of the smallest bungarotoxin-binding fragment containing asparagine-141 and the size of fragments produced by digestion with V8 protease further indicated that the bungarotoxin-binding site is contained within amino acid residues 153-241. A 32-amino acid synthetic peptide comprising a portion of this region (residues 173-204) was tested for its ability to bind '251-labeled bungarotoxin. '251-labeled bungarotoxin bound to the peptide and was competed by unlabeled bungarotoxin and d-tubocurarine with ICso values of 0.5 jzM and 2 mM, respectively. We conclude that a major determinant of the bungarotoxin-binding site on the a subunit resides between residues 173 and 204.

Evidence was presented earlier that a host-cell receptor for the highly neurotropic rabies virus might be the acetylcholine receptor. The amino acid sequence of the glycoprotein of rabies virus was compared by computer analysis with that of snake venom curaremimetic neurotoxins, potent ligands of the acetylcholine receptor. A statistically significant sequence relation was found between a segment of the rabies glycoprotein and the entire sequence of long neurotoxins. The greatest identity occurs with residues considered most important in neurotoxicity, including those interacting with the acetylcholine binding site of the acetylcholine receptor. Because of the similarity between the glycoprotein and the receptor-binding region of the neurotoxins, this region of the viral glycoprotein may function as a recognition site for the acetylcholine receptor. Direct binding of the rabies virus glycoprotein to the acetylcholine receptor could contribute to the neurotropism of this virus.

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The direct binding of a-bungarotoxin to the a subunit of the acetylcholine receptor from Torpedo electric organ immobilized onto protein blots was demonstrated. Protein blots were prepared by electrophoretically transferring resolved acetylcholine receptor subunits from 10% polyacrylamide gels onto

The binding of 125I-labeled rabies virus to a synthetic peptide comprising residues 173-204 of the alpha 1-subunit of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor was investigated. Binding of rabies virus to the receptor peptide was dependent on pH, could be competed with by unlabeled homologous virus particles, and was saturable. Synthetic peptides of snake venom, curaremimetic neurotoxins and of the structurally similar segment of the rabies virus glycoprotein, were effective in competing with labeled virus binding to the receptor peptide at micromolar concentrations. Similarly, synthetic peptides of the binding domain on the acetylcholine receptor competed for binding. These findings suggest that both rabies virus and neurotoxins bind to residues 173-204 of the alpha 1-subunit of the acetylcholine receptor. Competition studies with shorter alpha-subunit peptides within this region indicate that the highest affinity virus binding determinants are located within residues 179-192. A rat nerve alpha 3-subunit peptide, that does not bind alpha-bungarotoxin, inhibited binding of virus to the alpha 1 peptide, suggesting that rabies binds to neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. These studies indicate that synthetic peptides of the glycoprotein binding domain and of the receptor binding domain may represent useful antiviral agents by targeting the recognition event between the viral attachment protein and the host cell receptor, and inhibiting attachment of virus to the receptor.

Peptides corresponding to portions of loop 2 of snake venom curare-mimetic neurotoxins and to a structurally similar region of rabies virus glycoprotein were synthesized. Interaction of these peptides with purified Torpedo electric organ acetylcholine receptor was tested by measuring their ability to block the binding of 125I-labeled alpha-bungarotoxin to the receptor. In addition, inhibition of alpha-bungarotoxin binding to a 32-residue synthetic peptide corresponding to positions 173-204 of the alpha-subunit was determined. Neurotoxin and glycoprotein peptides corresponding to toxin loop 2 inhibited labeled toxin binding to the receptor with IC50 values comparable to those of nicotine and the competitive antagonist d-tubocurarine and to the alpha-subunit peptides with apparent affinities between those of d-tubocurarine and alpha-cobratoxin. Substitution of neurotoxin residue Arg37, the proposed counterpart of the quaternary ammonium of acetylcholine, with a negatively charged Glu residue reduced the apparent affinity about 10-fold. Peptides containing the neurotoxin invariant residue Trp29 and 10- to 100-fold higher affinities than peptides lacking this residue. These results demonstrate that relatively short synthetic peptides retain some of the binding ability of the native protein from which they are derived, indicating that such peptides are useful in the study of protein-protein interactions. The ability of the peptides to compete alpha-bungarotoxin binding to the receptor with apparent affinities comparable to those of other cholinergic ligands indicates that loop 2 of the neurotoxins and the structurally similar segment of the rabies virus glycoprotein act as recognition sites for the acetylcholine receptor. Invariant toxin residues Arg37 and Trp29 and their viral homologs play important, although not essential, roles in binding, possibly by interaction with complementary anionic and hydrophobic subsites on the acetylcholine receptor. The alpha-subunit peptide most likely contains all of the determinants for binding of the toxin and glycoprotein peptides present on the alpha-subunit, because these peptides bind to the 32-residue alpha-subunit peptide with the same or greater affinity as to the intact subunit.