Abstract
Capsid-targeted viral inactivation is an antiviral strategy in which toxic fusion proteins are targeted to virions, where they inhibit viral multiplication by destroying viral components. These fusion proteins consist of a virion structural protein moiety and an enzymatic moiety such as a nuclease. Such fusion proteins can severely inhibit transposition of yeast retrotransposon Ty1, an element whose transposition mechanistically resembles retroviral multiplication. We demonstrate that expression of a murine retrovirus capsid-staphylococcal nuclease fusion protein inhibits multiplication of the corresponding murine leukemia virus by 30- to 100- fold. Staphylococcal nuclease is apparently inactive intracellularly and hence nontoxic to the host cell, but it is active extracellularly because of its requirement for high concentrations of Ca2+ ions. Virions assembled in and shed from cells expressing the fusion protein contain very small amounts of intact viral RNA, as would be predicted for nuclease-mediated inhibition of viral multiplication.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 364-368 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
Volume | 92 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 17 1995 |
Keywords
- antivirals
- gene therapy
- staphylococcal nuclease
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General