Defensins alpha 1-3:CD4 HNP1-3 bind CD4 Alpha-defensins, theta-defensins and their synthetic analogues the retrocyclins have been shown in numerous studies to have anti-HIV-1 activity (Chang & Klotman 2004). This appears to be mediated via multiple mechanisms including direct viral inactivation and down regulation of host-cell target co-receptors important for viral entry (Furci et al. 2007, Seidel et al. 2010). Further, HNPs 1 3, act as lectins and bind with relatively high affinity to gp120 (KD range, 15.8-52.8 nM) on the HIV-1 envelope and CD4 (KD range, 8.0-34.9 nM) on host target cells, both important molecules for viral entry (Wang et al. 2004). Artificial theta defensins, the retrocyclins, predicted from the human pseudogenes bind with even higher affinity whereas HNP-4 binding is much weaker (Wu et al. 2005). Alpha defensins have been demonstrated to inhibit the binding of gp120 to CD4 thus blocking HIV-1 fusion with its target cells (Furci et al. 2007). Authored: Jupe, S, 2011-04-28 Edited: Jupe, S, 2011-07-27 Pubmed15210812 Pubmed15595433 Pubmed17132727 Pubmed19024344 Pubmed20305815 Reactome Database ID Release 431471314 Reactome, http://www.reactome.org ReactomeREACT_116084 Reviewed: McDermott, AM, 2011-11-03 Defensins alpha 1-3