Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts: Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound   Target Concepts: Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound

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Query: EC:2.7.7.48 (transcriptase)
9,479 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The reverse-transcriptase inhibitor lamivudine (Zeffix, GlaxoSmithKline) is often used to treat chronic infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) until resistance develops. Treatment may then be switched to the reverse-transcriptase inhibitor adefovir (Hepsera, Gilead), which has a lower frequency of resistance. Here, we describe three cases of primary adefovir resistance that were sensitive to tenofovir (Viread, Gilead). All three cases involved a rare HBV variant with a valine at position 233 of the reverse-transcriptase domain instead of isoleucine (rtI233V), as in the wild-type virus. This HBV variant also displayed resistance to adefovir and sensitivity to tenofovir in vitro.
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PMID:Variant of hepatitis B virus with primary resistance to adefovir. 1685 78

Replication of picornavirus genomes is accomplished by the virally encoded RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP). Although the primary structure of this enzyme exhibits a high level of conservation, there are several significant differences among different picornavirus genera. In particular, a comparative alignment indicates that the C-terminal sequences of cardiovirus RdRP (known also as 3D(pol)), are 1-amino-acid residue (arginine or tryptophan) longer than that of the enterovirus or rhinovirus enzymes. Here, it is shown that alterations of the last codon of the RdRP-encoding sequence of mengovirus RNA leading to deletion of the C-terminal Trp460 or its replacement by Ala or Phe dramatically impaired viral RNA replication and, in the former case, resulted in a quasi-infectious phenotype (i.e., the mutant RNA might generate a low yield of pseudorevertants acquiring a Tyr residue in place of the deleted Trp460). The replacement of Trp460 by His or Tyr did not appreciably alter the viral growth potential. Homology modeling of three-dimensional structure of mengovirus RdRP suggested that Trp460 may be involved in interaction between the thumb and palm domains of the enzyme. Specifically, Trp460 of the thumb may form a hydrogen bond with Thr219 and hydrophobically interact with Val216 of the palm. The proposed interactions were consistent with the results of in vivo SELEX experiment, which demonstrated that infectious virus could contain Ser or Thr at position 219 and hydrophobic Val, Leu, Ile, as well as Arg (whose side chain has a nonpolar part) at position 216. A similar thumb-palm domain interaction may be a general feature of several RdRPs and its possible functional significance is discussed.
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PMID:Significance of the C-terminal amino acid residue in mengovirus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. 1746 26

Protein-protein interactions are crucial to biological functions. Consequently, designing drugs to control protein-protein interactions is receiving increasing attention. Protein structures can associate in different ways. Analysis of the structures of protein-protein complexes using amino acid sequence order-independent multiple structural comparison algorithms, led us to conclude that the amino acids Trp, Met, and Phe are important for protein-protein interactions. Hence, in principle, drug design targeting the Trp/Met/Phe should modulate protein functions effectively. Several clusters of the Trp/Met/Phe residues are involved in the p53 protein-protein interactions. The best example in this regard is the Phe19/Trp23 of p53, which binds to transcriptional factors and to the MDM2 protein. In the HIV related proteins, the Trp/Met/Phe residues have roles in the dimerization of the transcriptase (p51/p66) and in cell-fusion processes, including the gp120-CD4 interaction and the gp41 six-helix bundle formation. Trp/Met/Phe residues are preferred in 'normal' functional protein-protein interactions and they also appear to be exploited in amyloid formation, especially the phenylalanine. Comparison of binding propensity and amyloid formation preference reveals that apart from Lysine, Isoleucine is the least structurally conserved in protein binding sites and has a high propensity in sequences forming amyloids. Thus, this may suggest that nature tends to avoid Ile conservation in protein-protein interaction to avoid amyloid formation. In this regards, Trp/Met/Phe as well as Ile may be targeted to modulate protein-protein interaction.
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PMID:Trp/Met/Phe hot spots in protein-protein interactions: potential targets in drug design. 1750 33

Phytohormones mediate the perception of insect-specific signals and the elicitation of defenses during insect attack. Large-scale changes in a plant's transcriptome ensue, but how these changes are regulated remains unknown. Silencing of RNA-directed RNA polymerase 1 (RdR1) makes Nicotiana attenuata highly susceptible to insect herbivores, suggesting that defense elicitation is under the direct control of small-RNAs (smRNAs). Using 454-sequencing, we characterized N. attenuata's smRNA transcriptome before and after insect-specific elicitation in wild-type (WT) and RdR1-silenced (irRdR1) plants. We predicted the targets of N. attenuata smRNAs in the genes related to phytohormone signaling (jasmonic acid, JA-Ile, and ethylene) known to mediate resistance responses, and we measured the elicited dynamics of phytohormone biosynthetic transcripts and phytohormone levels in time-course experiments with field- and glasshouse-grown plants. RdR1 silencing severely altered the induced transcript accumulation of 8 of the 10 genes, reduced JA, and enhanced ethylene levels after elicitation. Adding JA completely restored the insect resistance of irRdR1 plants. irRdR1 plants had photosynthetic rates, growth, and reproductive output indistinguishable from that of WT plants, suggesting unaltered primary metabolism. We conclude that the susceptibility of irRdR1 plants to herbivores is due to altered phytohormone signaling and that smRNAs play a central role in coordinating the large-scale transcriptional changes that occur after herbivore attack. Given the diversity of smRNAs that are elicited after insect attack and the recent demonstration of the ability of ingested smRNAs to silence transcript accumulation in lepidopteran larvae midguts, the smRNA responses of plants may also function as direct defenses.
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PMID:Herbivory-induced changes in the small-RNA transcriptome and phytohormone signaling in Nicotiana attenuata. 1833 6

The de novo initiating RNA-directed RNA polymerase (RdRP), P2, forms the central machinery in the infection cycle of the bacteriophage phi6 by performing the dual tasks of replication and transcription of the double-stranded RNA genome in the host cell. By measurement and quantitative analysis of multiple-quantum spin-relaxation data for the delta1 positions of Ile residues that are distributed over the 3D-fold of P2, we find that the enzyme is dynamic both on the fast (ps-ns) and slow (micros-ms) timescales. The characteristics of several motional modes including those that coincide with the catalytic timescale (500-800/s) are altered in the presence of substrate analogs and single-stranded RNA templates. These studies reveal the plasticity of this finely tuned molecular machine and represent a first step towards linking structural information available from a host of crystal structures to catalytic mechanisms and timescales obtained from the measurements of kinetics for homologous systems in solution.
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PMID:Dynamics on multiple timescales in the RNA-directed RNA polymerase from the cystovirus phi6. 2038 78

Enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection is the main cause of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) and has been associated with severe neurological diseases resulting in high mortalities. In this study, six EV71 strains isolated from patients with different clinical symptoms were sequenced and analyzed in a mouse model of EV71 infection. In a phylogenetic tree, based on the complete VP1 gene sequence, all six strains grouped into the C4 genotype. The sequence analysis revealed that there are nucleotide changes clustered in the internal ribosome entry site (IRES) element of the 5'-nontranslated region (5'-NTR), as well as amino acid differences clustered in the non-structural proteins. Importantly, we identified a unique amino acid difference (Val(1994)-Ile(1994)) that distinguished the more virulent strains, Anhui1 (Ah1), Henan1 (Hn1) and Henan2 (Hn2) from the less virulent strains, Chongqing1 (Cq1), Chongqing2 (Cq2) and Chongqing3 (Cq3). This amino acid difference is located in the finger domain of the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase 3D (3D(pol)). Furthermore, two-day-old Balb/c mice were inoculated with the Ah1, Hn1, Hn2, Cq1, Cq2 and Cq3 isolates by the intracerebral or intraperitoneal routes. All of the mice inoculated with Ah1, Hn1 and Hn2 isolates developed hind-leg paralysis and subsequently died. Mice inoculated with the Cq1, Cq2 or Cq3 isolates survived throughout the 21-day observation period. These results show that clinical isolates of EV71 associated with disease of different severity in humans have characteristic sequence differences and cause different mortality rates when inoculated into mice. These data also provide a rational basis to investigate the molecular determinants of EV71 pathogenesis using a reverse genetic approach.
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PMID:Sequence analysis of six enterovirus 71 strains with different virulences in humans. 2039 8

The RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) region of Solenopsis invicta virus 1 (SINV-1) was sequenced from 47 infected colonies of S. invicta, S. richteri, S. geminata, and S. invicta/richteri hybrids collected from across the USA, northern Argentina, and northern Taiwan in an attempt to infer demographic information about the recent S. invicta introduction into Taiwan by phylogenetic analysis. Nucleotide sequences were calculated to exhibit an overall identity of >90% between geographically-separated samples. A total of 171 nucleotide variable sites (representing 22.4% of the region amplified) were mapped across the SINV-1 RdRp alignment and no insertions or deletions were detected. Phylogenetic analysis at the nucleotide level revealed clustering of Argentinean sequences, distinct from the USA sequences. Moreover, the SINV-1 RdRp sequences derived from recently introduced populations of S. invicta from northern Taiwan resided within the multiple USA groupings implicating the USA as the source for the recent introduction of S. invicta into Taiwan. Examination of the amino acid alignment for the RdRp revealed sequence identity >98% with only nine amino acid changes observed. Seven of these changes occurred in less than 4.3% of samples, while 2 (at positions 1266 and 1285) were featured prominently. Changes at positions 1266 and 1285 accounted for 36.2% and 34.0% of the samples, respectively. Two distinct groups were observed based on the amino acid residue at position 1266, Threonine or Serine. In cases where this amino acid was a Threonine, 90% of these sequences possessed a corresponding Valine at position 1285; only 10% of the Threonine(1266)-containing sequences possessed an Isoleucine at the 1285 position. Among the Serine(1266) group, 76% possessed an Isoleucine at position 1285, while only 24% possessed a Valine. Thus, it appears that the Threonine(1266)/Valine(1285) and Serine(1266)/Isoleucine(1285) combinations are predominant phenotypes.
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PMID:Exploitation of a high genomic mutation rate in Solenopsis invicta virus 1 to infer demographic information about its host, Solenopsis invicta. 2068 67

Flavivirus NS5 protein encodes methyltransferase and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) activities. Structural analysis of flavivirus RdRp domains uncovered two conserved cavities (A and B). Both cavities are located in the thumb subdomains and represent potential targets for development of allosteric inhibitors. In this study, we used dengue virus as a model to analyze the function of the two RdRp cavities. Amino acids from both cavities were subjected to mutagenesis analysis in the context of genome-length RNA and recombinant NS5 protein; residues critical for viral replication were subjected to revertant analysis. For cavity A, we found that only one (Lys-756) of the seven selected amino acids is critical for viral replication. Alanine substitution of Lys-756 did not affect the RdRp activity, suggesting that this residue functions through a nonenzymatic mechanism. For cavity B, all four selected amino acids (Leu-328, Lys-330, Trp-859, and Ile-863) are critical for viral replication. Biochemical and revertant analyses showed that three of the four mutated residues (Leu-328, Trp-859, and Ile-863) function at the step of initiation of RNA synthesis, whereas the fourth residue (Lys-330) functions by interacting with the viral NS3 helicase domain. Collectively, our results have provided direct evidence for the hypothesis that cavity B, but not cavity A, from dengue virus NS5 polymerase could be a target for rational drug design.
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PMID:Functional analysis of two cavities in flavivirus NS5 polymerase. 2134 34

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS5B protein is an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase essential for replication of the viral RNA genome. In vitro and presumably in vivo, NS5B initiates RNA synthesis by a de novo mechanism and then processively copies the whole RNA template. Dissections of de novo RNA synthesis by genotype 1 NS5B proteins previously established that there are two successive crucial steps in de novo initiation. The first is dinucleotide formation, which requires a closed conformation, and the second is the transition to elongation, which requires an opening of NS5B. We also recently published a combined structural and functional analysis of genotype 2 HCV-NS5B proteins (of strains JFH1 and J6) that established residue 405 as a key element in de novo RNA synthesis (P. Simister et al., J. Virol. 83:11926-11939, 2009; M. Schmitt et al., J. Virol 85:2565-2581, 2011). We hypothesized that this residue stabilizes a particularly closed conformation conducive to dinucleotide formation. Here we report similar in vitro dissections of de novo synthesis for J6 and JFH1 NS5B proteins, as well as for mutants at position 405 of several genotype 1 and 2 strains. Our results show that an isoleucine at position 405 can promote both dinucleotide formation and the transition to elongation. New structural results highlight a molecular switch of position 405 with long-range effects, resolving the implied paradox of how the same residue can successively favor both the closed conformation of the dinucleotide formation step and the opening necessary to the transition step.
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PMID:Two crucial early steps in RNA synthesis by the hepatitis C virus polymerase involve a dual role of residue 405. 2253 94

The myosuppressin (MS) gene was cloned from a central nervous system (CNS) cDNA library of the hematophagous insect Rhodnius prolixus and is predicted to contain two introns and three exons. The mRNA transcribed from the myosuppressin gene encodes an 88 amino acid prepropeptide, which results in a mature decapeptide after post-translational modification. When compared with the myosuppressins isolated from other insects, the R. prolixus myosuppressin has a unique amino acid sequence (pQDIDHVFMRFamide), with isoleucine (I) in position 3 and methionine (M) in position 8. Reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR shows that Rhopr-MS is expressed in the CNS and posterior midgut in R. prolixus and immunohistochemistry suggests that an RFamide-like peptide is present in endocrine-like cells in the midgut. Physiological assays using Rhopr-MS indicate that, despite the unusual M at position 8, it still retains myoinhibitory activity, inhibiting the frequency and reducing the amplitude of contractions in the anterior midgut and hindgut, and decreasing heart rate.
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PMID:An unusual myosuppressin from the blood-feeding bug Rhodnius prolixus. 2262 97


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