Dengue fusion peptides in interaction with model membranes – a fluorescence study

Dengue fever is a widespread infectious disease caused by viruses and responsible for millions of cases per year. One the key steps during infection fusion between cell membrane lipidic bilayer virus, done glycoprotein envelope. At tip envelope there peptide widely conserved among four known virus serotypes. Here dengue peptides were studied in buffer solution interacting with model membranes using fluorescence techniques. Peptides have tryptophan residue exposed to aqueous environment when buffer, while hydrophobic negatively charged vesicles, as shown blue shift emission increase lifetime decay. Fluorescence anisotropy results confirm that more restrictive vesicles. Finally, correlation spectroscopy support importance electrostatic interaction, showing promotes significant diameter compared absence effect size neutral