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- Title
Sphingopeptides: dihydrosphingosine-based fusion inhibitors against wild-type and enfuvirtide-resistant HIV-1.
- Authors
Ashkenazi, Avraham; Viard, Mathias; Unger, Linor; Blumenthal, Robert; Shai, Yechiel
- Abstract
Understanding the structural organization of lipids in the cell and viral membranes is essential for elucidating mechanisms of viral fusion that lead to entry of enveloped viruses into their host cells. The HIV lipidome shows a remarkable enrichment in dihydrosphingomyelin, an unusual sphingolipid formed by a dihydrosphingosine backbone. Here we investigated the ability of dihydrosphingosine to incorporate into the site of membrane fusion mediated by the HIV envelope (Env) protein. Dihydrosphingosine as well as cholesterol, fatty acid, and tocopherol was conjugated to highly conserved, short HIV-1 Env-derived peptides with no antiviral activity otherwise. We showed that dihydrosphingosine exclusively endowed nanomolar antiviral activity to the peptides (IC50 as low as 120 nM) in HIV-1 infection on TZMo-b1 cells and on Jurkat T cells, as well as in the cell-cell fusion assay. These sphingopeptides were active against enfuvirfide-resistant and wild-type CXCR4 and CCR5 tropic HIV strains. The anti-HIV activity was determined by both the peptides and their dihydrosphingosine conjugate. Moreover, their mode of action involved accumulation in the cells and viruses and binding to membranes enriched in sphingomyelin and cholesterol. The data suggest that sphingopeptides are recruited to the HIV membrane fusion site and provide a general concept in developing inhibitors of sphingolipid-mediated biological systems.
- Subjects
ENFUVIRTIDE (Drug); HIV infections; VIRAL envelope proteins; SPHINGOLIPIDS; PEPTIDES
- Publication
FASEB Journal, 2012, Vol 26, Issue 11, p4628
- ISSN
0892-6638
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1096/fj.12-215111