A Potent Trivalent Sialic Acid Inhibitor of Adenovirus Type 37 Infection of Human Corneal Cells

Wouldn′t it be useful to have three arms? It came in handy for a trivalent sialic acid inhibitor, which blocked all three binding pockets of a trimeric adenoviral fiber-knob protein and thus prevented cell attachment and the subsequent infection of human corneal epithelial cells. The picture shows the terminal sialic acid moietes of the inhibitor bound to the top of the fiber head (C yellow, O red, N blue; the spacers and scaffold are not shown).