Pennington Hallie N, Lee Jinwoo
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Computer, Mathematics, and Natural Science, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD 20740, USA.
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Computer, Mathematics, and Natural Science, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD 20740, USA.
Biochim Biophys Acta Biomembr. 2025 Jun;1867(5-6):184428. doi: 10.1016/j.bbamem.2025.184428. Epub 2025 Jun 5.
Lassa virus (LASV) is the most prevalent arenavirus afflicting humans and has high pandemic potential. The genetic material of LASV is delivered into the host cell via membrane fusion initiated by the LASV fusion domain (FD). However, the molecular details of the LASV FD, particularly its structure after association with the host cell, remain poorly characterized. This can be attributed to a lack of a viable membrane mimic to effectively stabilize the LASV FD for structural studies. Here, we demonstrate that the structure of the LASV FD widely varies based on the class of membrane mimic. In particular, through CD spectroscopy, we found that the LASV FD required a charged membrane mimic, such as zwitterionic or anionic detergent micelles, to adopt a helical conformation at low pH, but has the highest helical content in the presence of anionic lipids, particularly the detergent micelle LMPG and acidic bicelles. Moreover, we reveal that the LASV FD was well resolved on NMR spectra in CHAPS, DPC, LDAO, LMPG, and acidic bicelles, where LMPG and acidic bicelles had the sharpest peak resolution, but more defined peaks were noted in acidic bicelles over LMPG. In conclusion, our findings indicate that acidic bicelles are the optimal membrane mimic for the stabilization of the LASV FD such that structural studies can be conducted.
拉沙病毒(LASV)是感染人类的最常见沙粒病毒,具有很高的大流行潜力。LASV的遗传物质通过由LASV融合结构域(FD)引发的膜融合被递送至宿主细胞。然而,LASV FD的分子细节,尤其是其与宿主细胞结合后的结构,仍未得到充分表征。这可归因于缺乏一种可行的膜模拟物来有效稳定LASV FD以进行结构研究。在此,我们证明LASV FD的结构根据膜模拟物的类别有很大差异。特别是,通过圆二色光谱法,我们发现LASV FD需要一种带电荷的膜模拟物,如两性离子或阴离子去污剂胶束,才能在低pH下呈现螺旋构象,但在阴离子脂质存在下具有最高的螺旋含量,尤其是去污剂胶束LMPG和酸性双分子层。此外,我们揭示LASV FD在CHAPS、DPC、LDAO、LMPG和酸性双分子层的核磁共振谱上得到了很好的解析,其中LMPG和酸性双分子层的峰分辨率最清晰,但与LMPG相比,酸性双分子层的峰更明确。总之,我们的研究结果表明酸性双分子层是稳定LASV FD以便进行结构研究的最佳膜模拟物。