Recent work has identified three distinct classes of viral membrane fusion proteins based on
structural criteria. In addition, there are at least four distinct mechanisms by which viral fusion …

Every enveloped virus fuses its membrane with a host cell membrane, thereby releasing its
genome into the cytoplasm and initiating the viral replication cycle. In each case, one or a …

ABSTRACT A new human endogenous retrovirus (HERV) family, termed HERV-W, was
recently described (J.-L. Blond, F. Besème, L. Duret, O. Bouton, F. Bedin, H. Perron, B …

Screening human sequence databases for endogenous retroviral elements with coding
envelope genes has revealed 16 candidate genes that we assayed for their fusogenic …

Exosomes are extracellular vesicles that mediate intercellular communication and are
involved in several biological processes. The objective of our study was to determine …

Mammalian placentation is a highly regulated process and is dependent on the proper
development of specific trophoblast cell lineages. The two major types of trophoblast, villous …

In the past few years, many retrovirus receptors, coreceptors, and cofactors have been
identified. These molecules are important for some aspects of viral entry, although in some …

A major limitation of current lentiviral vectors (LVs) is their inability to govern efficient gene
transfer into quiescent cells such as primary T cells, which hampers their application for …

Trophoblast fusion in the placenta is an event of major importance for the preservation of a
healthy pregnancy. This process takes place throughout pregnancy and is crucial for the …

Ebola viruses contain a single glycoprotein (GP) spike, which functions as a receptor
binding and membrane fusion protein. It contains a highly conserved hydrophobic region …