Relevance of Host Cell Surface Glycan Structure for Cell Specificity of Influenza A Viruses

Influenza A viruses (IAVs) initiate infection via binding of the viral hemagglutinin (HA) to sialylated glycans on host cells. HA’s receptor specificity towards individual is well studied and clearly critical for virus infection, but contribution highly heterogeneous complex glycocalyx virus–cell adhesion remains elusive. Here, we use two complementary methods, glycan arrays single-virus force spectroscopy (SVFS), compare influenza with live Unexpectedly, found that preference does not necessarily reflect specificity. We propose SVFS as a tool elucidate cell IAVs, thereby including environment receptors within plasma membrane living