Publications by authors named "Alan A Simpson"

Pleconaril is a broad-spectrum antirhinovirus and antienterovirus compound that binds into a hydrophobic pocket within viral protein 1, stabilizing the capsid and resulting in the inhibition of cell attachment and RNA uncoating. When crystals of human rhinovirus 16 (HRV16) and HRV14 are incubated with pleconaril, drug occupancy in the binding pocket is lower than when pleconaril is introduced during assembly prior to crystallization. This effect is far more marked in HRV16 than in HRV14 and is more marked with pleconaril than with other compounds.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Human parvovirus B19 is the only parvovirus known to be a human pathogen. The structure of recombinant B19-like particles has been determined to approximately 3.5-A resolution by x-ray crystallography and, to our knowledge, represents the first near-atomic structure of an Erythrovirus.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The structure of the N-terminal domain (NTD) of Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) capsid protein (CA), with an upstream 25 amino acid residue extension corresponding to the C-terminal portion of the Gag p10 protein, has been determined by X-ray crystallography. Purified Gag proteins of retroviruses can assemble in vitro into virus-like particles closely resembling in vivo-assembled immature virus particles, but without a membrane. When the 25 amino acid residues upstream of CA are deleted, Gag assembles into tubular particles.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The Phycodnaviridae, Iridoviridae and related viruses, with diameters of 1500-2000 A, are formed from large trigonal arrays of hexagonally close-packed capsomers forming the faces of icosahedra [Yan et al. (2000), Nature Struct. Biol.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Paramecium bursaria Chlorella virus type 1 (PBCV-1) is a very large, icosahedral virus containing an internal membrane enclosed within a glycoprotein coat consisting of pseudohexagonal arrays of trimeric capsomers. Each capsomer is composed of three molecules of the major capsid protein, Vp54, the 2.0-A resolution structure of which is reported here.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The structure of baculovirus-expressed porcine parvovirus (PPV) capsids was solved using X-ray crystallography and was found to be similar to the related canine parvovirus (CPV) and minute virus of mice (MVM). The PPV capsid protein has 57 % and 49 % amino acid sequence identity with CPV and MVM, respectively, but the degree of conservation of surface-exposed residues is lower than average. Consequently, most of the structural differences are on the surface and are the probable cause of the known variability in antigenicity and host range.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF