Enveloped viruses commonly employ membrane fusion during cell penetration in order to deliver their genetic material across the cell boundary. Large conformational changes in the proteins embedded in the viral membrane play a fundamental role in the membrane fusion process. Despite the tremendously wide variety of viruses that contain membranes, it appears that they all contain membrane fusion protein machinery with a remarkably conserved mechanism of action. Much of our current biochemical understanding of viral membrane fusion has been derived from high-resolution structural studies and solution-based in vitro assays in which viruses fuse with liposomes or cells. Recently, single-particle experiments have been used to provide measurements of details not available in the bulk assays. Here we focus our discussion on the key dynamical aspects of fusion protein structure, along with some of the experimental and computational techniques presently being used to investigate viral-mediated membrane fusion.

Laura Wessels

Keith Weninger

Physical Aspects of Viral Membrane Fusion

Interaction in vitro between cells infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and surrounding, uninfected, target cells often leads to cell fusion and the formation of multinucleated cells, called syncytia. The presence in HIV-infected individuals of virus strains able to induce syncytia in cultures of T cells is associated with disease progression and AIDS. Even in the asymptomatic stage of infection, multinucleated cells have been observed in different organs, indicating that fused cells may be generated and remain viable in the tissues of patients. We used lymphocytic cells transfected for the expression of the HIV-envelope (Env) glycoproteins to develop a method for the direct quantification of fusion events by flow cytometry (Huerta et al., 2006, J. Virol. Methods 138, 17–23; López-Balderas et al., 2007, Virus Res. 123, 138–146). The method involves the staining of fusion partners with lipophilic probes and the use of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) to distinguish between fused and aggregated cells. We have shown that such a flow-cytometry assay is appropriate for the screening of compounds that have the potential to modulate HIV-Env–mediated cell fusion. Even those syncytia that are small or few in numbers can be detected. Quantitative analysis of the fusion products was performed with this technique; the results indicated that the time of reaction and initial proportion of fusion partners determine the number, relative size, and average cellular composition of syncytia. Heterogeneity of syncytia generated by HIV-Env–mediated cell-cell fusion may result in a variety of possible outcomes that, in turn, may influence the biological properties of the syncytia and surrounding cells, as well as replication of virus. Given the myriad immune abnormalities leading to AIDS, the full understanding of the extent, diverse composition, and role of fused cells in the pathogenesis of, and immune response to, HIV infection is an important, pending issue.

Leonor Huerta

Nayali López-Balderas

Evelyn Rivera-Toledo

Guadalupe Sandoval

Guillermo Gómez-Icazbalceta

Carlos Villarreal

Edmundo Lamoyi

Carlos Larralde

HIV-Envelope–Dependent Cell-Cell Fusion: Quantitative Studies

Nuno C. Santos

In and Out — Biochemical and Biophysical Mechanisms of Viral Fusion and Assembly

Rotavirus is a nonenveloped, double-stranded, RNA virus belonging to the Reoviridae family and is the major etiological agent of viral gastroenteritis in young children and young animals. Remarkable progress in the understanding of the rotavirus cycle has been made in the last 10 years. The knowledge of viral replication thus far acquired is based on structural studies, the expression and coexpression of individual viral proteins, silencing of individual genes by siRNAs, and the effects that these manipulations have on the physiology of the infected cell. The functions of the individual rotavirus proteins have been largely dissected; however, the interactions between them and with cell proteins, and the molecular mechanisms of virus replication, are just beginning to be understood. These advancements represent the basis for the development of effective vaccination and rational therapeutic strategies to combat rotavirus infection and diarrhea syndromes. In this paper, we review and try to integrate the new knowledge about rotavirus entry, replication, and assembly, and pose some of the questions that remain to be solved.

Marie Christine Ruiz

Theresa Leon

Yuleima Diaz

Fabian Michelangeli

Molecular Biology of Rotavirus Entry and Replication

AIDS affects 30 million people worldwide and is one of the deadliest epidemics in human history. It is caused by a retrovirus, HIV, whose mature capsid (enclosing the RNA with other proteins) is formed by the assembly of several hundred copies of a protein, CA*. The C-terminal domain of such protein, CAC, is a driving force in virus assembly and the connections in the mature capsid lattice indicate that CAC joins through homodimerization of the CA hexamers. In the first part of this work, I shall review the biophysical studies carried out with the dimeric wild-type CAC protein and a mutant monomeric variant. The results open new venues for the development of drugs able to interact either with the dimeric species, hampering its assembly, or with the monomeric species, obstructing its folding. In the second part of this review, I shall describe the structures of complexes of CAC with small molecules able to weaken its dimerization. Furthermore, interactions with other proteins and lipids are also described. The whole set of results suggests that much of the surface of CAC does not accommodate binding per se, but rather binding sites in the protein are predefined, i.e., there are “hot” spots for binding in CAC (whatever be the molecule to bind). These “hot” residues involve most of the dimerization interface (an α-helix) of the CAC wild-type protein, but also polypeptide patches at the other helices.

José L. Neira

Biophysical and Structural Studies on the Capsid Protein of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1: A New Drug Target?

We previously showed that lymphocytes and erythrocytes of HIV-1&#x2013;infected patients, prior to antiretroviral therapy, presented significant changes in intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca2+]int) and membrane fluidity. The present study evaluates the same parameters after response to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Blood samples were collected from patients prior to and after antiretroviral therapy, and from control subjects. Membrane fluidity and [Ca2+]int were assessed by fluorescence spectroscopy measurements, using three different probes: TMA-DPH and DPH for membrane fluidity, and fura-2 for Ca2+. When compared with the control group, both untreated and treated patients presented increased lymphocyte [Ca2+]int and decreased lymphocyte membrane fluidity, without significant differences between the two groups of patients. On the contrary, the therapy reversed the membrane fluidity variations observed in erythrocytes. The decreased erythrocyte [Ca2+]int of untreated patients was not reversed by HAART. AIDS patients present changes in lymphocyte (mostly noninfected) and erythrocyte properties, partially reversed by HAART, consistent with a process of facilitated propagation of the infection to new cells, stimulation of virion production, and maintenance of a reservoir of erythrocyte-bound infectious virus. These observations can be related with the action of the HIV Nef protein in the cell&#x27;s proteins and lipid composition, as well as with the recently observed cell infection by HIV-1 via endocytosis.

J. Martins e Silva

Teresa Freitas

M. Doroana

N. Duarte

L. Tavares

F. Antunes

Carlota Saldanha

Blood Cell Membrane Fluidity and Intracellular Ca2+ Changes in Antiretroviral-Na&#239;ve and -Treated HIV-1&#x2013;Infected Patients

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