Synthetic Helical Peptides Block HIV Infectivity

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Synthetic Helical Peptides Block HIV Infectivity

Reuters Health Information Services (www.reutershealth.com) (12/12/00)

A recent report in the journal AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses (2000;16:1797-1804) indicates that synthetic helical peptides derived from a part of the HIV glycoprotein gp41 can inhibit HIV infection. Researchers from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology note that the extracellular domain of the glycoprotein are key for oligomerization and virus-induced fusion. The authors tested a number of synthetic peptides designed to be highly helical in solution for their ability to inhibit HIV. The report points out that while adding helix-capping motifs to a 19 amino-acid wild-type peptide did not generate the desired helical conformation; however, changing eight residues to alanine or lysine did induce the desired changes.
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