Export of infectious particles by Escherichia coli transfected with the RF DNA of Pf1, a virus of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain K

Architectural insight into inovirus-associated vectors (IAVs) and development of IAV-based vaccines inducing humoral and cellular responses: implications in HIV-1 vaccines

Inovirus-associated vectors (IAVs) are engineered, non-lytic, filamentous bacteriophages that are assembled primarily from thousands of copies of the major coat protein gp8 and just five copies of each of the four minor coat proteins gp3, gp6, gp7 and gp9. Inovirus display studies have shown that the architecture of inoviruses makes all coat proteins of the inoviral particle accessible to the outside. This particular feature of IAVs allows foreign antigenic peptides to be displayed on the outer surface of the virion fused to its coat proteins and for more than two decades has been exploited in many applications including antibody or peptide display libraries, drug design, and vaccine development against infectious and non-infectious diseases. As vaccine carriers, IAVs have been shown to elicit both a cellular and humoral response against various pathogens through the display of antibody epitopes on their coat proteins. Despite their high immunogenicity, the goal of developing an effective vaccine against HIV-1 has not yet materialized. One possible limitation of previous efforts was the use of broadly neutralizing antibodies, which exhibited autoreactivity properties. In the past five years, however, new, more potent broadly neutralizing antibodies that do not exhibit autoreactivity properties have been isolated from HIV-1 infected individuals, suggesting that vaccination strategies aimed at producing such broadly neutralizing antibodies may confer protection against infection. The utilization of these new, broadly neutralizing antibodies in combination with the architectural traits of IAVs have driven the current developments in the design of an inovirus-based vaccine against HIV-1. This article reviews the applications of IAVs in vaccine development, with particular emphasis on the design of inoviral-based vaccines against HIV-1.

Raman optical activity of filamentous bacteriophages: hydration of alpha-helices

We report the first observations of vibrational Raman optical activity (ROA) on intact viruses. Specifically, ROA spectra of the filamentous bacteriophages Pf1, M13 and IKe in aqueous solution were measured in the range approximately 600-1800 cm-1. On account of its ability to probe directly the chiral elements of biomolecular structure, ROA has provided a new perspective on the solution structures of these well-studied systems. The ROA spectra of all three are dominated by signatures of helical elements in the major coat proteins, as expected from pre-existing data. The helical elements generate strong sharp positive ROA bands at approximately 1300 and 1342 cm-1in H2O solution, but in2H2O solution the approximately 1342 cm-1bands disappear completely. The spectra are similar to those of polypeptides under conditions that produce alpha-helical conformations. Our present results, together with results from other studies, suggest that the positive approximately 1342 cm-1ROA bands are generated by a highly hydrated form of alpha-helix, and that the positive approximately 1300 cm-1bands originate in alpha-helix in a more hydrophobic environment. The presence of significant amounts of highly hydrated helical sequences accords with the known flexibility of these viruses. Differences of spectral detail for Pf1, M13 and IKe demonstrate that ROA is sensitive to subtle variations of conformation and hydration within the major coat proteins, with M13 and IKe possibly containing more non-helical structure than Pf1. The ROA spectra of Pf1 at temperatures above and below that at which a structural transition is known to occur (approximately 10 degrees C) reveal little difference in the protein conformation between the two forms, but there are indications of changes in DNA structure.

Ultraviolet absorbance and circular dichroism of Pf1 virus: nucleotide/subunit ratio of unity, hyperchromic tyrosines and DNA bases, and high helicity in the subunits

Data have been obtained for the Pf1 virion that establish its stoichiometry and conformational features of its DNA and its protein. The absorbance spectrum of the dissociated virus under alkaline denaturing conditions is fit exactly by spectra for DNA and protein at a mole ratio of one nucleotide per protein subunit. This result, together with three previous values by independent methods, establishes that the nucleotide/subunit ratio (n/s) of Pf1 is unity. The absorbance spectrum of DNA in the intact native virus is assigned as the spectrum for heat denatured Pf1 DNA, with epsilon (P) = 8400 M-1 cm-1 at 259 nm. The absorbance spectrum assigned to protein (two tyrosines) in the intact virus has <epsilon (Y)> = 2500 M-1 cm-1 per tyrosine at lambda max of 281.5 nm; this is the most red-shifted and hyperchromic tyrosine spectrum known. The CD spectrum of the intact virus from 250 to 320 nm has no apparent DNA contribution, but has a strong contribution from the red-shifted tyrosine(s). The CD spectrum from 185 to 250 nm has the shape of alpha-helical CD reference spectra, but is perceptibly blue-shifted, with a crossover from negative to positive ellipticity at 199.7 nm, and it has very high amplitudes (e.g. [theta 207.5nm] = -44,000 deg cm2 dmol-1). This spectrum indicates completely helical protein in the virus, with a predominance of alpha-helix and perhaps some 3(10)-helix. The unit n/s ratio, the high absorbance and negligible near-UV CD for the DNA bases, and the high amplitudes for the helical protein are critical input data for the determination of Pf1 virus structure.

Application of scanning transmission electron microscopy to the study of biological structure

The scanning transmission electron microscope provides structural and chemical information of a specimen at atomic-scale resolution and complements conventional transmission electron microscopy techniques. Mass measurements can now be performed routinely on a wide range of molecular and supramolecular structures using elastically scattered electrons. Recent progress in the acquisition and analysis of electron energy-loss spectroscopy data indicates that the scanning transmission electron microscope is an efficient tool for mapping the chemical composition of biological samples.