Structure of the Ebola fusion peptide in a membrane-mimetic environment and the interaction with lipid rafts

The fusion peptide EBO16 (GAAIGLAWIPYFGPAA) comprises the fusion domain of an internal sequence located in the envelope fusion glycoprotein (GP2) of the Ebola virus. This region interacts with the cellular membrane of the host and leads to membrane fusion. To gain insight into the mechanism of the peptide-membrane interaction and fusion, insertion of the peptide was modeled by experiments in which the tryptophan fluorescence and (HNMR)-H-1 were monitored in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate micelles or in the presence of detergent-resistant membrane fractions. In the presence of SDS micelles, EBO16 undergoes a random coil-helix transition, showing a tendency to self-associate. The three-dimensional structure displays a 3(10)-helix in the central part of molecule, similar to the fusion peptides of many known membrane fusion proteins. Our results also reveal that EBO16 can interact with detergent-resistant membrane fractions and strongly suggest that Trp-8 and Phe-12 are important for structure maintenance within the membrane bilayer. Replacement of tryptophan 8 with alanine (W8A) resulted in dramatic loss of helical structure, proving the importance of the aromatic ring in stabilizing the helix. Molecular dynamics studies of the interaction between the peptide and the target membrane also corroborated the crucial participation of these aromatic residues. The aromatic-aromatic interaction may provide a mechanism for the free energy coupling between random coil-helical transition and membrane anchoring. Our data shed light on the structural "domains" of fusion peptides and provide a clue for the development of a drug that might block the early steps of viral infection.