Structural Basis of Evasion of Cellular Adaptive Immunity by HIV-1 Nef

Jia, Xiaofei; Singh, Rajendra; Homann, Stefanie; Yang, Haitao; Guatelli, John; Xiong, Yong

The HIV-1 protein Nef inhibits antigen presentation by class I MHC (MHC-I). Here the mechanism of this activity is revealed by the crystal structure of a protein complex consisting of Nef, the MHC-I cytoplasmic domain (MHC-I CD), and the μ1 subunit of the clathrin adaptor protein complex 1. A ternary, cooperative interaction clamps the MHC-I CD into a narrow binding groove at the Nef-μ1 interface encompassing the cargo-recognition site of μ1 and the proline rich strand of Nef. The Nef C-terminus induces a novel conformational change in μ1, while the N-terminus binds the Nef core to position it optimally for complex formation. Positively charged patches on μ1 recognize acidic clusters in Nef and MHC-I. The structure shows how Nef functions as a clathrin-associated sorting protein to alter the specificity of host membrane trafficking and enable viral evasion of adaptive immunity.