Biophysical Characterization of Engineered HIV-1 Immunogen Derived from gp120 and a Lightweight Scaffolding Protein
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- February 26, 2019
- Creator
-
Faison, Edgar
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Chemistry
- Abstract
- An effective vaccine for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has been a global health priority fordecades. The HIV-1 surface protein Env is the sole envelope protein on the surface of the virus, presenting anumber of obstacles such as a carbohydrate coat on the surface of the protein and high variability in numerousregions of the protein thereby rendering many traditional vaccine strategies ineffective. Here, a strategy to exploitthe variability in glycosylation among a limited number of non-essential yet conserved sites of Env has yieldeda hybrid protein consisting of an epitope from Env and a light-weight, thermally stable scaffold protein that mayfunction as an immunogen for HIV. The biophysical characterization of this engineered protein was attemptedcomputationally via molecular dynamics simulations and experimentally via circular dichroism and x-ray crystallographyto confirm the computational model and to evaluate the in vitro structure of the protein as well as thefidelity of the epitope.
- Date of publication
- spring 2018
- Keyword
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Note
- Funding: Chancellor's Science Scholars
- Advisor
- Faison, Edgar
- Degree
- Bachelor of Science
- Academic concentration
- Chemistry
- Honors level
- Honors
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Graduation year
- 2018
- Language
- English
Relations
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