Entry of HIV-1 into host cells remains a compelling yet elusive target for developing agents to prevent
infection. A
peptide triazole (PT) class of entry inhibitor has previously been shown to bind to HIV-1 gp120, suppress interactions of the
Env protein at host cell receptor binding sites, inhibit cell
infection, and cause envelope spike
protein breakdown, including gp120 shedding and, for some variants, virus membrane lysis. We found that
gold nanoparticle-conjugated forms of
peptide triazoles (AuNP-PT) exhibit substantially more potent
antiviral effects against HIV-1 than corresponding
peptide triazoles alone. Here, we sought to reveal the mechanism of potency enhancement underlying nanoparticle conjugate function. We found that altering the physical properties of the nanoparticle conjugate, by increasing the AuNP diameter and/or the density of PT conjugated on the AuNP surface, enhanced potency of
infection inhibition to impressive picomolar levels. Further, compared with unconjugated PT, AuNP-PT was less susceptible to reduction of
antiviral potency when the density of PT-competent Env spikes on the virus was reduced by incorporating a
peptide-resistant mutant gp120. We conclude that potency enhancement of virolytic activity and corresponding irreversible HIV-1 inactivation of PTs upon AuNP conjugation derives from multivalent contact between the
nanoconjugates and metastable Env spikes on the HIV-1 virus. The findings reveal that multispike engagement can exploit the metastability built into virus the envelope to irreversibly inactivate HIV-1 and provide a conceptual platform to design nanoparticle-based
antiviral agents for HIV-1 specifically and putatively for metastable enveloped viruses generally.