Enhanced anti-HIV-1 activity of CC-chemokine LD78β, a non-allelic variant of MIP-1α/LD78α

AbstractWe compared the anti-HIV-1 activity of CC-chemokine LD78β with that of MIP-1α, another CC-chemokine which shows 94% sequence homology with LD78β. Despite its close similarity to MIP-1α, the anti-HIV-1 activity of LD78β appeared to be nearly 10 times higher than that of MIP-1α. Mutagenesis of MIP-1α showed that the N-terminal additional tetrapeptide, which was present in LD78β and absent in MIP-1α, is responsible for enhanced anti-HIV-1 activity. The N-terminal structure-function relationship of LD78β described here will be of value in understanding the chemokine-receptor interactions and designing anti-HIV-1 compounds based on LD78β