Seeing CCR5

Despite offering a new mechanism for inhibiting HIV, Selzentry maraviroc's sales have languished. Pfizer Inc.'s CC chemokine receptor 5 antagonist does not block viruses with tropism for another co-receptor, CXC chemokine receptor 4, and many physicians find tropism assays too costly and too slow.

Now, a Shanghai and La Jolla team has reported the crystal structure of human CC chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5; CD195) bound to Selzentry, which provides a better understanding of how HIV virions interact with co-receptors before gaining cellular entry.¹ The structural snapshot could be used to guide discovery of better versions of viral entry inhibitors...