Fig. 5.

Proposed mechanism of action of fusogenic protoviral nanoparticles. The hair-pin shaped peptides (teal ribbons) self-assemble into spherical nanoparticles in the aqueous solution. Nanoparticles fuse spontaneously with the plasma membrane and disassemble upon fusion. Peptides transition into an active helical conformation in the apolar lipid environment. The helical peptides interact with the target receptor substituting the helix they are derived from (green) and thus inhibit receptor activity (7).