脂筏在病毒感染中的作用

脂筏是细胞膜上富含鞘脂和胆固醇的微区结构,广泛分布于细胞的膜系统.脂筏中含有诸多信号分子和免疫受体,在细胞的生命活动中扮演非常重要的角色.更为重要的是,脂筏为细胞表面发生的蛋白质-蛋白质和蛋白质-脂类分子间的相互作用提供了平台.研究表明,很多病毒可以利用细胞膜表面的脂筏结构介导其侵入宿主细胞,一些病毒可以借助脂筏结构完成病毒颗粒的组装和出芽.本文将综述不同类型的病毒如SV40、HIV等借助脂筏完成入侵以及流感病毒等利用脂筏完成组装和出芽的证据及机理,并概述目前研究病毒与脂筏相互作用的方法及存在的问题.深入研究脂筏在病毒感染中的作用,将有助于对病毒与宿主细胞的相互作用的理解,从而可能发现新的、有效的对抗病毒的方法。     

Effects of varying virus-spiking conditions on a virus-removal filter Planova™ 20N in a virus validation study of antibody solutions

We aimed to investigate the effect of virus‐spiking conditions on the filter performance (flux, flux decay, and parvovirus reduction) of the small virus filter Planova? 20N. We used three kinds of porcine parvovirus (PPV) stocks: serum, serum‐free, and purified. The flux profile with PPV spiking was similar to that without spiking for normal load filtration of about 250–300 L/m². High volume (3 vol %) of serum‐free PPV and 1 vol % serum PPV reduced the flux to some extent for high‐load filtration (over 10 h, ca., 500 L/m², 5 mg/mL IgG solution). Log reduction value (LRV) of PPV was maintained at a high level (>5) over the filtration volume. Flux for Planova? 20N was only minimally affected by the use of different virus stocks for spiking. Transmission electron microphotography showed that the distribution of PPV particles captured inside the membrane wall was reached until the ?60% thickness of the membrane, showing that the membrane of Planova? 20N has a thick effective layer for virus removal. These results provided evidence for the robustness of the filter performance of Planova? 20N, showing that it was not easily affected by virus spiking conditions and that it has a large capacity for high‐load conditions. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2011     

The large subunit of bacteriophage lambda's terminase plays a role in DNA translocation and packaging termination

The DNA packaging enzyme of bacteriophage lambda, terminase, is a heteromultimer composed of a small subunit, gpNu1, and a large subunit, gpA, products of the Nu1 and A genes, respectively. The role of terminase in the initial stages of packaging involving the site-specific binding and cutting of the DNA has been well characterized. While it is believed that terminase plays an active role in later post-cleavage stages of packaging, such as the translocation of DNA into the head shell, this has not been demonstrated. Accordingly, we undertook a generalized mutagenesis of lambda's A gene and found ten lethal mutations, nine of which cause post-cleavage packaging defects. All were located in the amino-terminal two-thirds of gpA, separate from the carboxy-terminal region where mutations affecting the protein's endonuclease activity have been found. The mutants fall into five groups according to their packaging phenotypes: (1) two mutants package part of the lambda chromosome, (2) one mutant packages the entire chromosome, but very slowly compared to wild-type, (3) two mutants do not package any DNA, (4) four mutants, though inviable, package the entire lambda chromosome, and (5) one mutant may be defective in both early and late stages of DNA packaging. These results indicate that gpA is actively involved in late stages of packaging, including DNA translocation, and that this enzyme contains separate functional domains for its early and late packaging activities.     

A molecular switch required for retrovirus assembly participates in the hexagonal immature lattice

In the Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) Gag protein, the 25 amino-acid residues of the p10 domain immediately upstream of the CA domain are essential for immature particle formation. We performed systematic mutagenesis on this region and found excellent correlation between the amino-acid side chains required for in vitro assembly and those that participate in the p10-CA dimer interface in a previously described crystal structure. We introduced exogenous cysteine residues that were predicted to form disulphide bonds across the dimer interface. Upon oxidation of immature particles, a disulphide-linked Gag hexamer was formed, implying that p10 participates in and stabilizes the immature Gag hexamer. This is the first example of a critical interaction between two different Gag domains. Molecular modeling of the RSV immature hexamer indicates that the N-terminal domains of CA must expand relative to the murine leukaemia virus mature hexamer to accommodate the p10 contact; this expansion is strikingly similar to recent cryotomography results for immature human immunodeficiency virus particles.     

Phage P22 procapsids equilibrate with free coat protein subunits

Assembly of bacteriophage P22 procapsids has long served as a model for assembly of spherical viruses. Historically, assembly of viruses has been viewed as a non-equilibrium process. Recently alternative models have been developed that treat spherical virus assembly as an equilibrium process. Here we have investigated whether P22 procapsid assembly reactions achieve equilibrium or are irreversibly trapped. To assemble a procapsid-like particle in vitro, pure coat protein monomers are mixed with scaffolding protein. We show that free subunits can exchange with assembled structures, indicating that assembly is a reversible, equilibrium process. When empty procapsid shells (procapsids with the scaffolding protein stripped out) were diluted so that the concentration was below the dissociation constant ( approximately 5 microM) for coat protein monomers, free monomers were detected. The released monomers were assembly-competent; when NaCl was added to metastable partial capsids that were aged for an extended period, the released coat subunits were able to rapidly re-distribute from the partial capsids and form whole procapsids. Lastly, radioactive monomeric coat subunits were able to exchange with the subunits from empty procapsid shells. The data presented illustrate that coat protein monomers are able to dissociate from procapsids in an active state, that assembly of procapsids is consistent with reactions at equilibrium and that the reaction follows the law of mass action.     

Residue conservation in viral capsid assembly

To evaluate the evolutionary constraints placed on viral proteins by the structure and assembly of the capsid, we calculate Shannon entropies in the aligned sequences of 45 polypeptide chains in 32 icosahedral viruses, and relate these entropies to the residue location in the three-dimensional structure of the capsids. Three categories of residues have entropies lower than the chain average implying that they are better conserved than average: residues that are buried within a subunit (the protein core), residues that contain atoms buried at an interface between subunits (the interface core), and residues that contribute to several such interfaces. The interface core is also conserved in homomeric proteins and in transient protein-protein complexes, which have only one interface whereas capsids have many. In capsids, the subunit interfaces implicate most of the polypeptide chain: on average, 66% of the capsid residues are at an interface, 34% at more than one, and 47% at the interface core. Nevertheless, we observe that the degree of residue conservation can vary widely between interfaces within a capsid and between regions within an interface. The interfaces and regions of interfaces that show a low sequence variability are likely to play major roles in the self-assembly of the capsid, with implications on its mechanism that we discuss taking adeno-associated virus as an example.     

Interaction with capsid protein alters RNA structure and the pathway for in vitro assembly of cowpea chlorotic mottle virus

Viruses use sophisticated mechanisms to allow the specific packaging of their genome over that of host nucleic acids. We examined the in vitro assembly of the Cowpea chlorotic mottle virus (CCMV) and observed that assembly with viral RNA follows two different mechanisms. Initially, CCMV capsid protein (CP) dimers bind RNA with low cooperativity and form virus-like particles of 90 CP dimers and one copy of RNA. Longer incubation reveals a different assembly path. At a stoichiometry of about ten CP dimers per RNA, the CP slowly folds the RNA into a compact structure that can be bound with high cooperativity by additional CP dimers. This folding process is exclusively a function of CP quaternary structure and is independent of RNA sequence. CP-induced folding is distinct from RNA folding that depends on base-pairing to stabilize tertiary structure. We hypothesize that specific encapsidation of viral RNA is a three-step process: specific binding by a few copies of CP, RNA folding, and then cooperative binding of CP to the "labeled" nucleoprotein complex. This mechanism, observed in a plant virus, may be applicable to other viruses that do not halt synthesis of host nucleic acid, including HIV.