From owner-biophysics@net.bio.net Wed Jan 28 22:00:00 1998 Path: biosci!biosci!not-for-mail From: "Carol Gross" Newsgroups: bionet.prof-society.biophysics Subject: Annual Meeting - abstract addition Date: 29 Jan 1998 07:30:18 -0800 Organization: BIOSCI International Newsgroups for Molecular Biology Lines: 40 Sender: daemon@net.bio.net Approved: cgross@biosci.cbs.umn.edu Distribution: world Message-ID: <199801291519.JAA18065@biosci.cbs.umn.edu> Reply-To: "Carol Gross" NNTP-Posting-Host: net.bio.net 1998 BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY ANNUAL MEETING MEMBRANE STRUCTURE & ASSEMBLY SUBGROUP Sunday, February 22, 12:30 - 5:30 p.m.. Room 1204A Viral Fusion Proteins: Progress in Structure and Function (12:30 p.m. Speaker abstract - not in abstract book) COILED COILS AND MEMBRANE FUSION. Peter S. Kim, Whitehead Institute, Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA 02142. In order for an enveloped virus to infect cells, the membrane surrounding the virus needs to fuse with the membrane surrounding the cell. Membrane fusion is regulated by the conformational state of surface glycoproteins, that switch from the native (non-fusogenic) structure to the fusogenic (fusion-active) conformation. Earlier studies revealed that, for the influenza hemagglutinin protein, this conformational change utilizes a "spring-loaded" mechanism in which the coiled-coil stem of the native protein extends, relocating the hydrophobic fusion peptide, by 100 Angstroms, toward the target membrane. There is a striking similarity between the influenza structure and the fusogenic structures of the envelope proteins from murine leukemia virus and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). The core structure of gp41 from the HIV envelope protein, taken together with other studies on the inhibitory properties of peptides derived from this core, suggests avenues for the design/discovery of small molecule inhibitors of HIV infection. ------------------------------------------------------- Biophysical Society 9650 Rockville Pike Bethesda, Maryland 20814-3998 Tel: (301) 530-7115 Fax: (301) 530-7133 e-mail: ckulik@biophysics.faseb.org WWW: http://www.biophysics.org/biophys -------------------------------------------------------