Mechanism of membrane insertion

Abstract

Virology Human papilloma viruses (HPVs), which are the source of up to 5% of human cancers, use a specialized cellular protein–trafficking complex called retromer to enter the cell from endosomes and transit to the nucleus. Xie et al. previously found that cell-penetrating peptides facilitated movement of part of the capsid protein of the virus into the endosomal membranes. Now, they have isolated multiple “traptamers” that inhibit HPV entry, each at different steps in the entry process. This discovery permitted an elucidation of the sequential steps required for viral entry. Sci. Adv. 10.1126/sciadv.abh4276 (2021).