The role of the cytoplasmic domain of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) envelope glycoproteins in virus replication was investigated. Deletion of residues 840 to 856 at the carboxyl terminus of gp41 reduced the efficiency of virus entry during an early step in the virus life cycle between CD4 binding and formation of the DNA provirus without affecting envelope glycoprotein synthes...

When interacting with the CD4 receptor, the HIV gp120 envelope glycoprotein undergoes conformational changes that allow binding to the chemokine receptor. Receptor binding is proposed to lead to conformational changes in the gp41 transmembrane envelope glycoprotein involving the creation and/or exposure of a coiled coil consisting of three heptad repeat (HR) sequences. The subsequent interactio...

Peptides derived from the C-terminal heptad repeat (CHR) of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) envelope protein transmembrane subunit gp41, such as T20 (enfuvirtide), can bind to the N-terminal heptad repeat (NHR) of gp41 and block six-helix bundle (6-HB) formation, thus inhibiting HIV-1 fusion with the target cell. However, clinical application of T20 is limited because of its low pot...

The human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) envelope glycoprotein gp41 is an important mediator of viral entry into host cells. Previous studies showed that the virucidal protein cyanovirin-N (CV-N) bound to both gp120 and gp41, and that this binding was associated with its antiviral activity. We constructed an HTS assay based on the interaction of europium-labeled CV-N with recombinant gly...

HIV-1 gp41 facilitates the viral fusion through a conformational switch involving the association of three C-terminal helices along the conserved hydrophobic grooves of three N-terminal helices coiled-coil. The control of these structural rearrangements is thought to be central to HIV-1 entry and, therefore, different strategies of intervention are being developed. Herewith, we describe a proce...

Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) is a pathogen that causes an AIDS-like syndrome in domestic cats and is extensively used as a model system by which criteria for anti-lentiviral vaccines and drugs development can be tested. Despite little homology sequence, the surface and TM gp of FIV and HIV-1 exhibit a common structural framework and appear to play similar roles in Initiation of cell infe...

To become infectious, HIV-1 particles undergo a maturation process involving proteolytic cleavage of the Gag and Gag-Pol polyproteins. Immature particles contain a highly stable spherical Gag lattice and are impaired for fusion with target cells. The fusion impairment is relieved by truncation of the gp41 cytoplasmic tail (CT), indicating that an interaction between the immature viral core and ...

The motifs involved in the various functions of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) gp41 cytoplasmic tail (CT), particularly those related to the intracellular trafficking and assembly of envelope glycoproteins (Env) onto core particles, have generally been assessed with a restricted panel of T-cell laboratory-adapted virus strains. Here, we investigated gp41 CT sequences derived fr...

Background: Gp41 is an envelope glycoprotein of human immune deficiency virus (HIV). HIV viral glycoprotein gp41, present in complex with gp120, assists the viral entry into host cell. Over eighty thousands individuals are HIV infected in Pakistan which makes about 0.2% of 38.6 million infected patients worldwide. Hence, HIV gp41 protein sequences isolated in Pakistan were analyzed for the CD4 ...

Fertilization comprises oligosaccharide-mediated sperm-egg interactions, including sperm binding to an extracellular egg envelope, sperm penetration through the envelope, and fusion with an egg plasma membrane. We show that Xenopus dicalcin, an S100-like Ca(2+)-binding protein, present in the extracellular egg envelope (vitelline envelope (VE)), is a suppressive mediator of sperm-egg interactio...