Membranotropic effects of peptides from the V3 loop of HIV-1

Summary The V3 loop from HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein gp120 is involved in viral entry and determines the cellular tropism and HIV-1-induced cell-cell fusion. Earlier we have shown that V3 loop peptides representing the sequences of syncytia-inducing HIV strains have high membranotropic activity. These peptides caused the lysis of liposomes of various lipid compositions, could fuse negatively charged liposomes and induced hemolysis of erythrocytes. In contrast, peptides mimicking the sequences of non-syncytia-inducing viruses showed no lytic or fusion activities at the same concentrations. Now we have found that the V3 loop synthetic peptides containing the conserved GPGR region, derived from T-lymphotropic strains (BRU and MN), as opposed to peptides containing the GPGQ region, are able to cause a pronounced membrane permeabilization (dissipation of the ΔpH and the Δψ) of human peripheral blood lymphocytes, erythrocytes and plasma membrane vesicles at micromolar concentrations with a dose-dependent kinetics. Analysis of the secondary structures of the peptides by circular dichroism revealed conformational changes in V3 loop peptides depending on solvent hydrophobicity: from random coil in water to an α-helix/β-sheet conformation in trifluoroethanol. Such structural changes of the V3 loop together with the membrane insertion of the gp41 N-terminal fusion peptide may promote the formation of the fusion pore during virus-cell fusion.