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Updated: May 10, 2026

A Murine Model of Dengue Virus-induced Acute Viral Encephalitis-like Disease
Published on: April 28, 2019
Hydrophobic segment of dengue virus C protein. Interaction with model membranes
Henrique Nemésio1, M Francisca Palomares-Jerez, José Villalaín
1Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular, Universidad Miguel Hernández, Elche-Alicante, Spain.
Abstract:
Dengue virus (DENV) C protein is essential for viral assembly. DENV C protein associates with intracellular membranes through a conserved hydrophobic domain and accumulates around endoplasmic reticulum-derived lipid droplets which could provide a platform for capsid formation during assembly. In a previous work we described a region in DENV C protein which induced a nearly complete membrane rupture of several membrane model systems, which was coincident with the theoretically predicted highly hydrophobic region of the protein. In this work we have carried out a study of the binding to and interaction with model biomembranes of a peptide corresponding to this DENV C region, DENV2C6. We show that DENV2C6 partitions into phospholipid membranes, is capable of rupturing membranes even at very low peptide-to-lipid ratios and its membrane-activity is modulated by lipid composition. These results identify an important region in the DENV C protein which might be directly implicated in the DENV life cycle through the modulation of membrane structure.
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