HIV-1 Membrane Fusion

HIV-1 Membrane Fusion

The AIDS pandemic is spreading unchecked in many parts of the world. Currently available anti-viral regimens are plagued by their high cost, by serious side effects in a significant minority of recipients, and by the increasing problems of drug-resistant HIV variants. Fortunately, rapid advances in understanding how HIV-1 enters cells have lead to the identification of promising new drug target...

HIV-1 Membrane Fusion: Targets of Opportunity

The AIDS pandemic is spreading unchecked in many parts of the world. Currently available anti-viral regimens are plagued by their high cost, by serious side effects in a significant minority of recipients, and by the increasing problems of drug-resistant HIV variants. Fortunately, rapid advances in understanding how HIV-1 enters cells have lead to the identification of promising new drug target...

Oligomeric beta-structure of the membrane-bound HIV-1 fusion peptide formed from soluble monomers.

The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) fusion peptide serves as a useful model system for understanding viral/target cell fusion, at least to the lipid mixing stage. Previous solid-state NMR studies have shown that the peptide adopts an oligomeric beta-strand structure when associated with a lipid and cholesterol mixture close to that of membranes of host cells of the virus. In this st...

Monitoring of HIV-1 envelope-mediated membrane fusion using modified split green fluorescent proteins.

A simple, cell-based, membrane fusion assay system that uses split green fluorescent proteins (spGFPs) as an indicator was developed. The attachment of the pleckstrin homology (PH) domain to the N-termini of each spGFP not only localized the reporter signal to the plasma membrane but also helped the stable expression of the smaller spGFP of seventeen amino acid residues. It was shown that this ...

Revised manuscript: JVI01558-09 Role of a putative gp41 dimerization domain in HIV-1 membrane fusion