Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Ingale, Sampat
• Gach, Johannes S.
• Zwick, Michael B.
• Dawson, Philip E.

Titel

Synthesis and analysis of the membrane proximal external region epitopes of HIV-1

Ist Teil von

• Journal of peptide science, 2010-12, Vol.16 (12), p.716-722

Ort / Verlag

Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2010

Quelle

Wiley-Blackwell Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The membrane proximal external region (MPER) of gp41 abuts the viral membrane at the base of HIV‐1 envelope glycoprotein spikes. The MPER is highly conserved and is rich in Trp and other lipophilic residues. The MPER is also required for the infection of host cells by HIV‐1 and is the target of the broadly neutralizing antibodies, 4E10, 2F5, and Z13e1. These neutralizing antibodies are valuable tools for understanding relevant conformations of the MPER and for studying HIV‐1 neutralization, but multiple approaches used to elicit MPER binding antibodies with similar neutralization properties have failed. Here we report our efforts to mimic the MPER using linear as well as constrained peptides. Unnatural amino acids were also introduced into the core epitope of 4E10 to probe requirements of antibody binding. Peptide analogs with C‐terminal Api or Aib residues designed to be helical transmembrane (TM) domain surrogates exhibit enhanced binding to the 4E10 and Z13e1 antibodies. However, we find that placement of constrained amino acids at nonbinding sites within the core epitope significantly reduce binding. These results are relevant to an understanding of native MPER structure on HIV‐1, and form a basis for a chemical synthesis approach to mimic MPER stricture and to construct an MPER‐based vaccine. Copyright © 2010 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The primary interacting residues for 4E10 binding are WF; new analogs containing unnatural amino acids have been synthesized compatible with 4E10 binding in this region. Backbone modifications with Aib and Api at C‐terminal tail of the epitope yielded better mimics of the MPER that will more likely elicit neutralizing antibodies.