Biochemical and biophysical analysis of heptad repeat regions from the fusion protein of Menangle virus, a newly emergent paramyxovirus

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• 作者：J. Q. Zhu ; C. W.-H. Zhang ; Z. Rao ; P. Tien and G. F. Gao
• 刊名：Archives of Virology
• 出版年：2003
• 出版时间：June 2003
• 年：2003
• 卷：148
• 期：7
• 页码：1301-1316
• 全文大小：454 KB

文摘

Menangle virus is a novel paramyxovirus isolated in Australia in 1997, but its classification position has not yet been finally settled. Here by using a computational program, LearnCoil-VMF, we determined the heptad repeat (HR) regions (HR1 and HR2) of Menangle virus F protein. Subsequently the HR1 and HR2 peptides were expressed as a single chain (named 2-Helix) connected by a six amino-acid linker as a GST fusion protein with an E. coli in vitro expression system. The GST-removed purified 2-Helix protein could form a stable trimer in vitro judging by gel-filtration and chemical cross-linking. CD spectra showed that the 2-Helix protein had a high percentage of f-helix and was very thermo-stable. Crystals of the 2-Helix protein preparations have been obtained in many conditions with hanging-drop diffusion method. These results indicated that Menangle virus has the common features of the fusion protein for other paramyxoviruses and should adopt a similar fusion mechanism to other members. As the HR regions of Menangle virus F protein could form stable six-helix bundle coiled coil structure, they should be used as drug target for the design of fusion inhibitors, as successfully used for other parmyxoviruses. This is especially relevant to such a newly emergent virus with zoonotic potentials.