T = 4 Icosahedral HIV-1 Capsid As an Immunogenic Vector for HIV-1 V3 Loop Epitope Display

Immunogenic Display of Purified Chemically Cross-Linked HIV-1 Spikes.

UNLABELLED HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein (Env) spikes are prime vaccine candidates, at least in principle, but suffer from instability, molecular heterogeneity and a low copy number on virions. We anticipated that chemical cross-linking of HIV-1 would allow purification and molecular characterization of trimeric Env spikes, as well as high copy number immunization. Broadly neutralizing antibodies...

HIV-1 Capsid as a Target for Antiviral Therapy

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is the causative virus responsible for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), for which there is still no protective vaccine. Since 1983, more than 34 million people have been infected with HIV across the world, with 1.5 million people dying as a result of complications from infection each year. HIV-1 virions mainly infect cells of the immune sys...

Molecular Recognition of CCR5 by an HIV-1 gp120 V3 Loop

The binding of protein HIV-1 gp120 to coreceptors CCR5 or CXCR4 is a key step of the HIV-1 entry to the host cell, and is predominantly mediated through the V3 loop fragment of HIV-1 gp120. In the present work, we delineate the molecular recognition of chemokine receptor CCR5 by a dual tropic HIV-1 gp120 V3 loop, using a comprehensive set of computational tools predominantly based on molecular ...

An Evolutionary-Network Model Reveals Stratified Interactions in the V3 Loop of the HIV-1 Envelope

The third variable loop (V3) of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) envelope is a principal determinant of antibody neutralization and progression to AIDS. Although it is undoubtedly an important target for vaccine research, extensive genetic variation in V3 remains an obstacle to the development of an effective vaccine. Comparative methods that exploit the abundance of sequence dat...

Proteasomal Processing of HIV - 1 T Cell Epitope - Flanking Mutations