Lozada Camille, Barlow Thomas M A, Gonzalez Simon, Lubin-Germain Nadège, Ballet Steven
BioCIS, CNRS, CY Cergy-Paris Université, Cergy-Pontoise, France.
Research Group of Organic Chemistry, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
Front Chem. 2021 Aug 23;9:689006. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2021.689006. eCollection 2021.
Membrane fusion events allow enveloped viruses to enter and infect cells. The study of these processes has led to the identification of a number of proteins that mediate this process. These proteins are classified according to their structure, which vary according to the viral genealogy. To date, three classes of fusion proteins have been defined, but current evidence points to the existence of additional classes. Despite their structural differences, viral fusion processes follow a common mechanism through which they exert their actions. Additional studies of the viral fusion proteins have demonstrated the key role of specific proteinogenic subsequences within these proteins, termed fusion peptides. Such peptides are able to interact and insert into membranes for which they hold interest from a pharmacological or therapeutic viewpoint. Here, the different characteristics of fusion peptides derived from viral fusion proteins are described. These criteria are useful to identify new fusion peptides. Moreover, this review describes the requirements of synthetic fusion peptides derived from fusion proteins to induce fusion by themselves. Several sequences of the viral glycoproteins E1 and E2 of HCV were, for example, identified to be able to induce fusion, which are reviewed here.
膜融合事件使包膜病毒能够进入并感染细胞。对这些过程的研究已导致鉴定出许多介导此过程的蛋白质。这些蛋白质根据其结构进行分类，结构因病毒谱系而异。迄今为止，已定义了三类融合蛋白，但目前的证据表明还存在其他类别。尽管它们在结构上存在差异，但病毒融合过程遵循一种共同的机制来发挥其作用。对病毒融合蛋白的进一步研究表明了这些蛋白中特定蛋白ogenic子序列（称为融合肽）的关键作用。从药理学或治疗学角度来看，此类肽能够与膜相互作用并插入膜中。在此，描述了源自病毒融合蛋白的融合肽的不同特征。这些标准有助于鉴定新的融合肽。此外，本综述描述了源自融合蛋白的合成融合肽自身诱导融合的要求。例如，已鉴定出丙型肝炎病毒的病毒糖蛋白E1和E2的几个序列能够诱导融合，在此对其进行综述。
