Mucins are high molecular-weight glycosylated proteins that are key constituents of the mucus barrier which acts as a first line of defense against the pathogens by trapping and restricting their transport. While mucins are heavily glycosylated and are known to interact and trap viruses, it is not clear how the glycan composition of mucin influences the adhesion and entrapment of viruses like HIV, which are known to be covered with high mannose glycans. It is also not clear how the presence of non-mucin components in the mucus barrier shifts the baseline glycan dependence of mucin-virus interaction. We investigated the interaction between HIV-1 and mucins in the cervicovaginal lavage (CVL) obtained from women with and without Bacterial Vaginosis (BV). The glycan composition of mucin is known to change in the BV- and BV+ states, and the susceptibility to HIV is also known to increase in the BV+ state. The aim of the study was to determine if the changes in patient mucin glycosylation correlated to observable differences in the mucin trapping of HIV-1, which would explain the increased susceptibility associated with BV+ states. Virus-mucin interaction was investigated with Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), a comparatively non-invasive, and cost-effective technology, by tracking the changes in the autocorrelation signal and size histograms after antibody pullout of virus or mucin from the virus and CVL mixture using magnetic beads. Mucin glycan composition was broadly determined with lectin-specific agglutination which is distinguishable in DLS. Initial results suggest broad similarities in the virus-mucin interaction in both BV+ and BV- CVL, despite there being differences in the mucin type and extent of glycosylation in the BV+ and BV- samples from the same patient. The study demonstrates the use of light scattering techniques to interrogate clinical samples with minimal sample preparation.
