Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) and Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) are two arthropod-borne phleboviruses in the Bunyaviridae family, which cause severe illness in humans and animals. Glycoprotein N (Gn) is one of the envelope proteins on the virus surface and is a major antigenic component. Despite its importance for virus entry and fusion, the molecular features of the phleboviruse Gn were unknown. Here, we present the crystal structures of the Gn head domain from both SFTSV and RVFV, which display a similar compact triangular shape overall, while the three subdomains (domains I, II, and III) making up the Gn head display different arrangements. Ten cysteines in the Gn stem region are conserved among phleboviruses, four of which are responsible for Gn dimerization, as revealed in this study, and they are highly conserved for all members in Bunyaviridae. Therefore, we propose an anchoring mode on the viral surface. The complex structure of the SFTSV Gn head and human neutralizing antibody MAb 4-5 reveals that helices α6 in subdomain III is the key component for neutralization. Importantly, the structure indicates that domain III is an ideal region recognized by specific neutralizing antibodies, while domain II is probably recognized by broadly neutralizing antibodies. Collectively, Gn is a desirable vaccine target, and our data provide a molecular basis for the rational design of vaccines against the diseases caused by phleboviruses and a model for bunyavirus Gn embedding on the viral surface.bunyavirus | SFTSV | glycoprotein | neutralizing antibody | RVFV

Anomerization, which involves cleavage and formation of the anomeric C-O bond, is of fundamental importance in the carbohydrate chemistry. Herein, the unexpected gold(I)-catalyzed anomerization of glycosyl ortho-alkynylbenzoates has been studied in detail. Especially, crossover experiments in the presence of an exogenous isochromen-4-yl gold(I) complex confirm that the anomerization proceeds via the exocleavage mechanism, involving (surprisingly) the addition of the isochromen-4-yl gold(I) complex onto a sugar oxocarbenium (or dioxolenium) and an elimination of LAu(+) from the vinyl gold(I) complex. The inhibitory effect of the exogenous isochromen-4-yl gold(I) complex when in stoichiometric amount on the anomerization has guided us to disclose an isochromen-4-yl gem-gold(I) complex, which is inactive in catalysis but in equilibrium with the monogold(I) complex and the LAu(+) catalyst. The proposed key intermediate in the anomerization, a transient glycosyloxypyrylium species, is successfully trapped via a cycloaddition reaction with n-butyl vinyl ether as a dienophile. SN2-like substitution of the initially formed glycosyloxypyrylium intermediate has then been achieved to a large extent via charging with acceptors in an excess amount to lead to the corresponding glycosides in a stereoselective manner.

Persuaded with gold: The title reaction in the presence of [Ph3PAuNTf2] (Tf=trifluoromethanesulfonyl) led conveniently to the corresponding nucleosides with excellent regioselectivity (see scheme). Even purine derivatives underwent this transformation owing to the mild conditions, which enabled the use of protecting groups that would not usually be compatible with N‐glycosylation conditions.