The design of a human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) immunogen that can induce broadly reactive neutralizing antibodies is a major goal of HIV-1 vaccine development. Although rare human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) exist that broadly neutralize HIV-1, HIV-1 envelope immunogens do not induce these antibody specificities. Here we demonstrate that the two most broadly reactive HIV-1 envelope gp41 human mAbs, 2F5 and 4E10, are polyspecific autoantibodies reactive with the phospholipid cardiolipin. Thus, current HIV-1 vaccines may not induce these types of antibodies because of autoantigen mimicry of the conserved membrane-proximal epitopes of the virus. These results may have important implications for generating effective neutralizing antibody responses by using HIV-1 vaccines.

The hairpin ribozyme requires functional group contributions from G8 to assist in phosphodiester bond cleavage. Previously, replacement of G8 by a series of nucleobase variants showed little effect on interdomain docking, but a 3-to 250-fold effect on catalysis. To identify G8 features that contribute to catalysis within the hairpin ribozyme active site, structures for five base variants were solved by X-ray crystallography in a resolution range between 2.3 to 2.7 Å. For comparison, a native all-RNA "G8" hairpin ribozyme structure was refined to 2.05 Å resolution. The native structure revealed a scissile bond angle (τ) of 158°, which is close to the requisite 180° 'in-line' geometry. Mutations G8(inosine), G8(diaminopurine), G8(aminopurine), G8(adenosine) and G8(uridine) folded properly, but exhibited non-ideal scissile bond geometries (τ ranging from 118° to 93°) that paralleled their diminished solution activities. A superposition ensemble of all structures, including a previously described hairpin ribozyme-vanadate complex, indicated the scissile bond can adopt a variety of conformations resulting from perturbation of the chemical environment, and provided a rationale for how the exocyclic amine of nucleobase 8 promotes productive, in-line geometry. Changes at position 8 also caused variations in the A−1 sugar pucker. In this regard, variants A8 and U8 appeared to represent non-productive ground-states in which their 2'-OH groups mimicked the pro-R, non-bridging oxygen of the vanadate transition-state complex. Finally, the results indicated that ordered water molecules bind near the 2'-hydroxyl of A−1, lending support to the hypothesis that solvent may play an important role in the reaction. † This work was supported by NIH Grant GM63162 to J.E.W. ‡ Protein Data Bank Codes for the reported structures: 1ZFR (G8), 1ZFT (G8I), 1ZFV (G8A), 1ZFX (G8U), 2BCY (G8AP), 2BB1 (G8DAP), 2BCZ (G8I/dA−1). § Present address: Rosalind Franklin School of Science and Medicine, Dept. Biochem. and Mol. Biol., 3333 Green Bay Road Rd., N. Chicago, IL 60064, USA * To whom correspondence should be addressed: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, 601 Elmwood Ave, Box 712, Rochester, New York 14642 USA. Phone: 585 273-4516; Fax: 585 275-6007; Email: Joseph_Wedekind@URMC.Rochester.edu ∥ These authors contributed equally to this work.Supporting Information Available A stereo diagram of representative electron density maps is provided for the native and position 8 variants of this study (Figure 1). A diagram comparing the G8I/2'-OMe A−1 and G8I/2'-deoxy A−1 variants is also available (Figure 2). The method for HPLC composition analysis of AP8 and DAP8 crystals is reported, as well as elution profiles for the separated hairpin ribozyme strands (Figure 3). This information is provided free of charge at http://pubs.acs.org NIH Public Access The hairpin ribozyme is a small ribozyme whose family members catalyze a reversible, sitespecific phosphodiester bond cleavage reacti...

No abstract

SUMMARY In HIV-1, the ability to mount antibody responses to conserved, neutralizing epitopes is critical for protection. Here we have studied the light chain usage of human and rhesus macaque antibodies targeted to a dominant region of the HIV-1 envelope second variable (V2) region involving lysine (K)169, the site of immune pressure in the RV144 vaccine efficacy trial. We found that humans and rhesus macaques used orthologous lambda variable gene segments encoding a glutamic acid-aspartic acid (ED) motif for K169 recognition. Structure determination of an unmutated ancestor antibody demonstrated that the V2 binding site was pre-configured for ED motif-mediated recognition prior to maturation. Thus, light chain usage for recognition of the site of immune pressure in the RV144 trial is highly conserved across species. These data indicate the HIV-1 K169-recognizing ED motif has persisted over the diversification between rhesus macaques and humans, suggesting an evolutionary advantage of this antibody recognition mode.

The hairpin ribozyme is an RNA enzyme that performs site-specific phosphodiester bond cleavage between nucleotides A-1 and G+1 within its cognate substrate. Previous functional studies revealed that the minimal hairpin ribozyme exhibited "gain-of-function" cleavage properties resulting from U39C or U39 to propyl linker (C3) modifications. Furthermore, each "mutant" displayed different magnesium-dependence in its activity. To investigate the molecular basis for these gain-of-function variants, crystal structures of minimal, junctionless hairpin ribozymes were solved in native (U39), and mutant U39C and U39(C3) forms. The results revealed an overall molecular architecture comprising two docked internal loop domains folded into a wishbone shape, whose tertiary interface forms a sequestered active site. All three minimal hairpin ribozymes bound Co(NH(3))(6)(3+) at G21/A40, the E-loop/S-turn boundary. The native structure also showed that U37 of the S-turn adopts both sequestered and exposed conformations that differ by a maximum displacement of 13 A. In the sequestered form, the U37 base packs against G36, and its 2'-hydroxyl group forms a water mediated hydrogen bond to O4' of G+1. These interactions were not observed in previous four-way-junction hairpin ribozyme structures due to crystal contacts with the U1A splicing protein. Interestingly, the U39C and U39(C3) mutations shifted the equilibrium conformation of U37 into the sequestered form through formation of new hydrogen bonds in the S-turn, proximal to the essential nucleotide A38. A comparison of all three new structures has implications for the catalytically relevant conformation of the S-turn and suggests a rationale for the distinctive metal dependence of each mutant.

Significance Achieving an AIDS-free generation will require elimination of breast milk transmission of HIV-1, as breastfeeding is a cornerstone of infant survival in developing regions. Antiretroviral prophylaxis considerably reduces postnatal HIV-1 transmission, yet its efficacy is limited by access, adherence, toxicities, and resistance of maternal HIV-1 strains. Alternative, safe strategies of impeding postnatal HIV-1 transmission will be required to eliminate infant HIV-1 infection. In this paper, we identify an innate HIV-neutralizing protein in breast milk, Tenascin-C, which captures and neutralizes HIV-1 virions via binding to the chemokine coreceptor binding site on the HIV-1 Envelope. This protein has the potential to be developed as a prevention strategy for postnatal and other modes of HIV-1 transmission.

The binding of neutralizing antibodies 2F5 and 4E10 to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) gp41 involves both the viral membrane and gp41 membrane proximal external region (MPER) epitopes. In this study, we have used several biophysical tools to examine the secondary structure, orientation, and depth of immersion of gp41 MPER peptides in liposomes and to determine how the orientation of the MPER with lipids affects the binding kinetics of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) 2F5 and 4E10. The binding of 2F5 and 4E10 both to their respective nominal epitopes and to a biepitope (includes 2F5 and 4E10 epitopes) MPER peptide-liposome conjugate was best described by a two-step encounter-docking model. Analysis of the binding kinetics and the effect of temperature on the binding stability of 2F5 and 4E10 to MPER peptide-liposome conjugates revealed that the docking of 4E10 was relatively slower and thermodynamically less favorable. The results of fluorescence-quenching and fluorescence resonance energy transfer experiments showed that the 2F5 epitope was more solvent exposed, whereas the 4E10 epitope was immersed in the polar-apolar interfacial region of the lipid bilayer. A circular dichroism spectroscopic study demonstrated that the nominal epitope and biepitope MPER peptides adopted ordered structures with differing helical contents when anchored to liposomes. Furthermore, anchoring of MPER peptides to the membrane via a hydrophobic anchor sequence was required for efficient MAb docking. These results support the model that the ability of 2F5 and 4E10 to bind to membrane lipid is required for stable docking to membrane-embedded MPER residues. These data have important implications for the design and use of peptide-liposome conjugates as immunogens for the induction of MPER-neutralizing antibodies.The two broadly neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) 2F5 and 4E10 target conserved core amino acid residues that lie in the membrane proximal external region (MPER) of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) gp41 (6,9,18,25,29). Structural studies of 2F5 and 4E10 in complex with their nominal epitope peptides led to the proposition that the long hydrophobic heavy chain CDR3 (CDR H3) loop might be involved in binding to the virion membrane due to the lack of direct contact of the tip of the CDR H3 loop with their bound epitopes (6, 25). MAbs 2F5 and 4E10 indeed were found to have enhanced binding to gp41 MPER in the presence of membrane (12,25). Subsequent studies have revealed the lipid reactivity of both the 2F5 and 4E10 MAbs (2, 14, 23, 27), emphasizing the need to understand how MAbs 2F5 and 4E10 recognize their epitopes in the context of a membrane-gp41 MPER interface.It has been hypothesized that the ability of MAbs 2F5 and 4E10 to interact with membrane lipids is required for binding to the membrane-bound gp41 MPER region and subsequent HIV-1 neutralization (2, 14, 15). The binding of both the 2F5 and 4E10 MAbs to their epitope peptides presented on synthetic liposomes was remarkably different from tha...

Ornithine cyclodeaminase catalyzes the conversion of L-ornithine to L-proline by an NAD(+)-dependent hydride transfer reaction that culminates in ammonia elimination. Phylogenetic comparisons of amino acid sequences revealed that the enzyme belongs to the mu-crystallin protein family whose three-dimensional fold has not been reported. Here we describe the crystal structure of ornithine cyclodeaminase in complex with NADH, refined to 1.80 A resolution. The enzyme consists of a homodimeric fold whose subunits comprise two functional regions: (i) a novel substrate-binding domain whose antiparallel beta-strands form a 14-stranded barrel at the oligomeric interface and (ii) a canonical Rossmann fold that interacts with a single dinucleotide positioned for re hydride transfer. The adenosyl moiety of the cofactor resides in a solvent-exposed crevice on the protein surface and makes contact with a "domain-swapped"-like coil-helix module originating from the dyad-related molecule. Diffraction data were also collected to 1.60 A resolution on crystals grown in the presence of l-ornithine. The structure revealed that the substrate carboxyl group interacts with the side chains of Arg45, Lys69, and Arg112. In addition, the ammonia leaving group hydrogen bonds to the side chain of Asp228 and the site of hydride transfer is 3.8 A from C4 of the nicotinamide. The absence of an appropriately positioned water suggested that a previously proposed mechanism that calls for hydrolytic elimination of the imino intermediate must be reconsidered. A more parsimonious description of the chemical mechanism is proposed and discussed in relation to the structure and function of mu-crystallins.