title: gH625: a milestone in understanding the many roles of membranotropic peptides.
abstract: Here, we review the current knowledge about viral derived membranotropic peptides, and we discuss how they may be used for many therapeutic applications. While they have been initially discovered in viral fusion proteins and have been involved in the mechanism of viral entry, it is now clear that their features and their mode of interaction with membrane bilayers can be exploited to design viral inhibitors as well as to favor delivery of cargos across the cell membrane and across the blood-brain barrier. The peptide gH625 has been extensively used for all these purposes and provides a significant contribution to the field. We describe the roles of this sequence in order to close the gap between the many functions that are now emerging for membranotropic peptides.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, University of Naples "Federico II", Via Mezzocannone 16, 80134 Naples, Italy; DFM Scarl, University of Naples "Federico II", Via Mezzocannone 16, 80134 Naples, Italy. Electronic address: stefania.galdiero@unina.it.
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Galdiero
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, University of Naples "Federico II", Via Mezzocannone 16, 80134 Naples, Italy; DFM Scarl, University of Naples "Federico II", Via Mezzocannone 16, 80134 Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Annarita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Falanga
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, University of Naples "Federico II", Via Mezzocannone 16, 80134 Naples, Italy; DFM Scarl, University of Naples "Federico II", Via Mezzocannone 16, 80134 Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Giancarlo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Morelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Medicine, II University of Naples, Via De Crecchio 7, 80138 Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Massimiliano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Galdiero
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000821:virology; D006561:Herpes Simplex / Q000378:metabolism / Q000821:virology; D018259:Herpesvirus 1, Human / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D006801:Humans; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D011487:Protein Conformation; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides; D014759:Viral Envelope Proteins; C569201:gH625 peptide, Herpes simplex virus type I
keywords: Delivery; Fusion; Hydrophobicity; Membranotropic peptide; Viral inhibition