2017 Research Highlights
Physiological Mg2+ conditions significantly alter the inhibition of HIV-1 and HIV-2 reverse transcriptases by nucleoside and non-nucleoside inhibitors in vitro
The efficacy of RT inhibitors is dramatically affected by the level of magnesium, unscoring the need to test inhibitors using physiological conditions.
Achuthan B, Singh K & DeStefano JJ. Biochem. 56, 33-46 (2017).
PubMed PMID: 27936595
PubMedCentral PMCID: PMC5453313
Functional interplay between murine leukemia virus glycogag, Serinc5, and surface glycoprotein governs virus entry, with opposite effects on gammaretroviral and ebolavirus glycoproteins
HIVE Center collaborators examine the effects of a cellular factor, Serinc5, upon the entry of murine leukemia virus
PubMed PMID: 27879338
PubMedCentral PMCID: PMCID5120145
An experimental check of backscattering interferometry
HIVE Center researchers validate BSI, a powerful method for rapid measuring of association constants.
Baksh MM & Finn MG. Sensors Actuators B 243, 9770981 (2017)
PubMed PMID: 28529409
PubMedCentral PMCID: PMC5433263
RiboCAT: a new capillary electrophoresis data analysis tool for nucleic acid probing
A new software package streamlines the analysis of data that probes the structure of RNA.
Cantara WA, Hatterschide J, Wu W & Musier-Forsyth. RNA, 23, 240-249 (2017)
PubMed PMID: 27821510
PMCID: PMC5238798
Analysis of RNA structure using small-angle X-ray scattering
A review of best practices for using SAXS to determine the tertiary structure of RNA under physiological conditions.
Cantara WA, Olson ED & Musier-Forsyth K. Methods , 113, 46-55 (2017)
PubMed PMID: 27777026
PMCID: PMC5253320
Conservation of tRNA mimicry in the 5′-untranslated region of distinct HIV-1 subtypes
HIVE Center researchers discover that part of the HIV genome mimics the shape of cellular transfer RNA
Comandur R, Olson ED & Musier-Forsyth RNA 23, 1850-1859 (2017).
PubMed PMID: 28860303
PubMedCentral: PMCID: PMC5689005
Dissection of specific binding of HIV-1 Gag to the “packaging signal” in viral RNA
HIVE Center collaborators uncover the details of how HIV-1 specifically recognizes its genomic RNA during packaging
Comas-Garcia M, Datta SAK, Baker L, Varma R, Gudla PR & Rein A eLIFE 6, e27055 (2017)
PubMed PMID: 28726630
PubMedCentral PMCID: PMC5531834
Inference of Epistatic Effects Leading to Entrenchment and Drug Resistance in HIV-1 Protease
HIVE researchers analyze data from patients to discover how HIV gains resistance to drugs.
Flynn WF, Haldane A, Torbett BE & Levy RM Mol. Biol. Evol. 34, 1291-1306 (2017).
PubMed PMID: 28369521
PubMedCentral PMCID: PMC5435099
Resistance to pyridine-based inhibitor KF116 reveals an unexpected role of integrase in HIV-1 Gag-Pol polyprotein proteolytic processing
A surprising connection between integrase and maturation of HIV is discovered.
PubMed PMID: 28972144
PubMedCentral PMCID: PMC5712621
Potts Hamiltonian models of protein co-variation, free energy landscapes, and evolutionary fitness
A powerful method for analysis of sequence and structural data is reviewed.
Levy RM, Haldane A & Flynn WF Curr. Op. Struct. Biol. 43, 55-62 (2017).
PubMed PMID: 27870991
Multidimensional SuFEx click chemistry: sequential sulfur(VI) fluoride exchange connection of diverse modules launched from an SOF4 hub.
A new family of transformations allow click chemistry connections between diverse chemical modules, including linkages between small molecules and protein sidechains.
Li S, Wu P, Moses JE & Sharpless KB. Angewandte Chemie 56, 2903-2908 (2017).
PubMed PMID: 28165188
PubMedCentral PMCID: PMC5434761
Open and closed structures reveal allostery and pliability in the HIV-1 envelope spike
Structures of HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein with receptors and antibodies are studied with cryoelectron microscopy
PubMed PMID: 28700571
PubMedCentral PMCID: PMC5538736
A combined treatment of hydration and dynamical effects for the modeling of host-guest binding thermodynamics: the SAMPL5 blinded challenge
Absolute binding free energies are computed for host-guest complexes using a new approach.
PubMed PMID: 27696239
PubMedCentral PMCID: PMC5477994
Multiplex single-cell visualization of nucleic acids and protein during HIV infection
HIVE researchers present a method to observe HIV DNA, RNA and proteins inside infected cells.
PubMed PMID: 29292235
PubMedCentral PMCID: PMC5709414
Exposing HIV’s Weaknesses
Commentary on recent research into the viral restriction factor SERINC5.
Tedbury PR & Sarafianos SG (2017) J. Biol. Chem. 292, 6027-6028
PubMed PMID: 28389578
PubMedCentral PMCID: PMC5392592
