ABSTRACT: The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) capsid protein plays a critical role in virus core particle assembly and is an important target for novel therapeutic strategies. In a previous study, we characterized the binding affinity of a hydrocarbon stapled helical peptide, NYAD-1, for the capsid protein (K(d) approximately 1 mum) and demonstrated its ability to penetrate the cell membrane (Zhang, H., Zhao, Q., Bhattacharya, S., Waheed, A. A., Tong, X., Hong, A., Heck, S., Goger, M., Cowburn, D., Freed, E. O., and Debnath, A. K. (2008) J. Mol. Biol. 378, 565-580). In cell-based assays, NYAD-1 colocalized with the Gag polyprotein during traffic to the plasma membrane and disrupted the formation of mature and immature virus particles in vitro systems. Here, we complement the cellular and
