posted on 2024-04-03, 13:35authored byJuntao Zhou, Libian Wang, Xiaoyan Liu, Yanxin Gai, Mingming Dong, Chu Wang, Muhammad Mujahid Ali, Mingliang Ye, Xianghui Yu, Lianghai Hu
The
HIV-1 envelope is a heavily glycosylated class 1 trimeric fusion
protein responsible for viral entry into CD4+ immune cells.
Developing neutralizing antibodies against the specific envelope glycans
is an alternative method for antiviral therapies. This work presents
the first-ever development and characterization of artificial neutralizing
antibodies using molecular imprinting technology to recognize and
bind to the envelope protein of HIV-1. The prepared envelope glycan-imprinted
nanoparticles (GINPs) can successfully prevent HIV-1 from infecting
target cells by shielding the glycans on the envelope protein. In vitro experiments showed that GINPs have strong affinity
toward HIV-1 (Kd = 36.7 ± 2.2 nM) and possess high
anti-interference and specificity. GINPs demonstrate broad inhibition
activity against both tier 1 and tier 2 HIV-1 strains with a pM-level
IC50 and exhibit a significant inhibitory effect on long-term
viral replication by more than 95%. The strategy provides a promising
method for the inhibition and therapy of HIV-1 infection.