Analogues of N-terminal truncated synthetic peptide fragments derived from RANTES inhibit HIV-1 infectivity

Leveraging the therapeutic, biological, and self-assembling potential of peptides for the treatment of viral infections

Peptides and peptide-based materials have an increasing role in the treatment of viral infections through their use as active pharmaceutical ingredients, targeting moieties, excipients, carriers, or structural components in drug delivery systems. The discovery of peptide-based therapeutic compounds, coupled with the development of new stabilization and formulation strategies, has led to a resurgence of antiviral peptide therapeutics over the past two decades. The ability of peptides to bind cell receptors and to facilitate membrane penetration and subsequent intracellular trafficking enables their use in various antiviral systems for improved targeting efficiency and treatment efficacy. Importantly, the self-assembly of peptides into well-defined nanostructures provides a vast library of discrete constructs and supramolecular biomaterials for systemic and local delivery of antiviral agents. We review here the recent progress in exploiting the therapeutic, biological, and self-assembling potential of peptides, peptide conjugates, and their supramolecular assemblies in treating human viral infections, with an emphasis on the treatment strategies for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

Structural and functional studies of the potent anti-HIV chemokine variant P2-RANTES

The N-terminal region of the chemokine RANTES is critical for its function. A synthesized N-terminally modified analog of RANTES, P2-RANTES, was discovered using a phage display selection against living CCR5-expressing cells, and has been reported to inhibit HIV-1 env-mediated cell-cell fusion at subnanomolar levels (Hartley et al. J Virol 2003;77:6637-6644). In the present study we produced this protein using E. coli overexpression and extensively studied its structure and function. The x-ray crystal structure of P2-RANTES was solved and refined at 1.7 A resolution. This protein was found to be predominantly a monomer in solution by analytical ultracentrifugation, but a tetramer in the crystal. In studies of glycosaminoglycan binding, P2-RANTES was found to be significantly less able to bind heparin than wild type RANTES. We also tested this protein for receptor internalization where it was shown to be functional, in cell-cell fusion assays where recombinant P2-RANTES was a potent fusion inhibitor (IC(50) = 2.4 +/- 0.8 nM), and in single round infection assays where P2-RANTES inhibited at subnanomolar levels. Further, in a modified fusion assay designed to test specificity of inhibition, P2-RANTES was also highly effective, with a 65-fold improvement over the fusion inhibitor C37, which is closely related to the clinically approved inhibitor T-20. These studies provide detailed structural and functional information for this novel N-terminally modified chemokine mutant. This information will be very useful in the development of more potent anti-HIV agents. PDB Accession Number: 2vxw.

Rational design of novel HIV-1 entry inhibitors by RANTES engineering

The discovery that the CC chemokines RANTES, MIP-1alpha and MIP-1beta act as potent natural inhibitors of HIV-1, the causative agent of AIDS, and the subsequent identification of CCR5 as a major virus coreceptor have triggered a wealth of basic and applied research approaches aimed at developing safe and effective viral entry inhibitors. Some of these efforts have focused on RANTES engineering with the goal of enhancing the antiviral activity of the native molecule while reducing or abrogating its inflammatory properties. The wavefront generated a decade ago is still on its course, with a flow of promising leads constantly emerging and being evaluated in preclinical studies. Here, we present an overview of this rapidly evolving field, highlighting the most important features of RANTES molecular architecture and structure-function relationships.