Structure of HIV-1 gp41 with its membrane anchors targeted by neutralizing antibodies

  1. Caillat Christophe
  2. Delphine Guilligay
  3. Johana Torralba
  4. Nikolas Friedrich
  5. Jose L Nieva
  6. Alexandra Trkola
  7. Christophe J Chipot
  8. François L Dehez
  9. Winfried Weissenhorn  Is a corresponding author
  1. Univ. Grenoble Alpes, France
  2. University of the Basque Country, Biofisika Institute, Spain
  3. University of Zurich, Switzerland
  4. Université de Lorraine, France
  5. University of Lorraine, France

Abstract

The HIV-1 gp120/gp41 trimer undergoes a series of conformational changes in order to catalyze gp41-induced fusion of viral and cellular membranes. Here, we present the crystal structure of gp41 locked in a fusion intermediate state by an MPER-specific neutralizing antibody. The structure illustrates the conformational plasticity of the six membrane anchors arranged asymmetrically with the fusion peptides and the transmembrane regions pointing into different directions. Hinge regions located adjacent to the fusion peptide and the transmembrane region facilitate the conformational flexibility that allows high affinity binding of broadly neutralizing anti-MPER antibodies. Molecular dynamics simulation of the MPER Ab-stabilized gp41 conformation reveals a possible transition pathway into the final post-fusion conformation with the central fusion peptides forming a hydrophobic core with flanking transmembrane regions. This suggests that MPER-specific broadly neutralizing antibodies can block final steps of refolding of the fusion peptide and the transmembrane region, which is required for completing membrane fusion.

Data availability

Diffraction data have been deposited in PDB under the accession code 7AEJ.All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files. Source data files have been provided for Table 2.

The following data sets were generated

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Caillat Christophe

    IBS, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Delphine Guilligay

    IBS, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Johana Torralba

    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of the Basque Country, Biofisika Institute, Bilbao, Spain
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Nikolas Friedrich

    Institute of Medical Virology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-0694-657X
  5. Jose L Nieva

    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of the Basque Country, Biofisika Institute, Bilbao, Spain
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Alexandra Trkola

    Institute of Medical Virology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-1013-876X
  7. Christophe J Chipot

    UMR 7565, Université de Lorraine, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy cedex, France
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-9122-1698
  8. François L Dehez

    Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie Théoriques, University of Lorraine, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  9. Winfried Weissenhorn

    IBS, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France
    For correspondence
    winfried.weissenhorn@ibs.fr
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-5532-4959

Funding

H2020 Health (681137)

  • Winfried Weissenhorn

Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-17-EURE-0003)

  • Winfried Weissenhorn

Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Gobierno de España (BIO2015-64421-R)

  • Jose L Nieva

Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (RTI2018-095624-B-C21)

  • Jose L Nieva

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

© 2021, Christophe et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Caillat Christophe
  2. Delphine Guilligay
  3. Johana Torralba
  4. Nikolas Friedrich
  5. Jose L Nieva
  6. Alexandra Trkola
  7. Christophe J Chipot
  8. François L Dehez
  9. Winfried Weissenhorn
(2021)
Structure of HIV-1 gp41 with its membrane anchors targeted by neutralizing antibodies
eLife 10:e65005.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.65005

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.65005

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