Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:3.4.23.16 (HIV-1 protease)
 2,107 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A stable cell line encoding the sequences of all the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 proteins, with the exception of the gp160 envelope glycoprotein, was derived from transfection of monkey COS-7 cells. This cell line, referred to as CH-1, produces active viral protease that correctly processes its natural substrates and yields capsid particles. These particles contain reverse transcriptase activity and packaged viral RNA but are noninfectious. The level of expression of viral proteins is not toxic to the cells, yet it is comparable to that observed for chronically infected lymphocytes. These constitutively synthesized viral proteins provide a consistent system for the analysis of potential inhibitors of late viral functions. The lack of gp160 increases the biosafety of this assay system, while it allows the measurement of the effects on the production and release of capsid particles. A human immunodeficiency virus type 1 protease inhibitor was used to confirm the viral polyprotein maturation pathway in this system. Particles from cells treated with this protease inhibitor contain unprocessed p55gag precursor and have the same density as the mature particles. These immature particles contain viral RNA, but reverse transcriptase activity is significantly reduced. This cell line may serve to identify compounds that are able to affect viral assembly and maturation as well as to identify the interactions between the viral and cellular proteins involved in these essential processes.
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PMID:Constitutive production of nonenveloped human immunodeficiency virus type 1 particles by a mammalian cell line and effects of a protease inhibitor on particle maturation. 784 May 83

Human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) protease is catalytically active as a dimer of identical subunits that associate through noncovalent interactions. To investigate the forces stabilizing HIV-1 protease in its active form, we have studied the effects of pH and salts on structure and function of the enzyme. Enzymatic activity was measured by following the hydrolysis of a fluorogenic substrate. Dissociation of the dimer into its subunits was monitored by gel filtration, while conformational changes in the enzyme were probed by measurements of intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence. Mg2+ ions were capable of dissociating the dimeric enzyme with a concomitant red shift and increase in quantum yield of the tryptophan fluorescence, indicating increased accessibility of tryptophan to the aqueous environment. These structural changes also were associated with a loss of catalytic activity which was insensitive to substrate concentration, consistent with noncompetitive inhibition. Both structural and functional changes could be attributed to binding of Mg2+ ions to a site with an apparent dissociation constant of approximately 2 M. In contrast, increasing concentrations of Na ions up to 5 M were without effect. Increasing pH had similar effects on HIV-1 protease as increasing Mg2+ ions concentration, with concomitant dissociation into subunits, increase in quantum yield and red shift in tryptophan fluorescence, and loss in catalytic activity. The apparent pKa for these structural and functional transitions was 6.95 +/- 0.08. This value is consistent with that of an aspartic acid residue with an anomalously high pKa, which has been implicated in the catalytic activity of HIV-1 protease.
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PMID:Effect of pH and nonphysiological salt concentrations on human immunodeficiency virus-1 protease dimerization. 784 Sep 36

Here we have investigated if human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) protease expressed in trans can interfere with production of infectious HIV-1 particles. Protease produced from a Tat and Rev inducible expression plasmid specifically cleaved HIV-1 p55Gag in a dose-dependent manner. Coexpression of protease and an infectious HIV-1 proviral clone resulted in increased intracellular cleavage of p55Gag. As a consequence, virus production and virus infectivity was significantly reduced. These results suggest that overexpression of HIV-1 protease in HIV-1-infected cells is a powerful way to inhibit production of infectious virions.
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PMID:Overexpression of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 protease increases intracellular cleavage of Gag and reduces virus infectivity. 785 98

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) proteinase is a promising target for the rational development of drugs against the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), since this enzyme is necessary for viral maturation, and its inhibition could lead to cessation of viral replication. Rational drug design combines chemical synthesis of compounds with structure determination methods, including protein crystallography. When the crystal structure of the HIV proteinase was determined, many research laboratories began designing drugs that would be effective inhibitors of the enzyme, and many such inhibitors were produced. Once that work was initiated, refined, and completed in the laboratory, other issues, such as specificity and bioavailability, became important. The clinical utility of such compounds is the final and most important consideration. Analysis of many agents for which structural formulas have been determined, and comparison of such formulas, provide valuable lessons for the continuing work on this enzyme and for future programs of rational drug design.
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PMID:Rational drug design: the proteinase inhibitors. 788 83

Substitution of glycine with glutamic acid at position 48 of the human immunodeficiency virus protease resulted in an enzyme with reduced activity on one of the protease processing sites in the viral Pol polyprotein precursor. Cleavage at this site was restored by a second-site substitution in the substrate replacing an aspartic acid with either glycine or asparagine. These results suggest that the glutamic acid side chain in the mutant protease has an unfavorable charge-charge interaction with this position in the substrate. Cleavage of a processing site in the viral Gag polyprotein precursor with the mutant enzyme was enhanced, and this enhancement was dependent on the presence of an arginine residue in the substrate, again suggesting a charge-charge interaction. The potential for such interactions was confirmed using molecular modeling. The effect of the position 48 substitution was attributed to a 10-fold increase in Km for the processing site in Pol. These results indicate that the addition of a side chain at position 48 can alter the specificity of the HIV-1 protease to substrate in a sequence specific manner and that compensatory changes can be made in the substrate.
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PMID:A side chain at position 48 of the human immunodeficiency virus type-1 protease flap provides an additional specificity determinant. 788 51

L-735,524 is a potent, orally bioavailable inhibitor of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) protease currently in a Phase II clinical trial. We report here the three-dimensional structure of L-735,524 complexed to HIV-2 protease at 1.9-A resolution, as well as the structure of the native HIV-2 protease at 2.5-A resolution. The structure of HIV-2 protease is found to be essentially identical to that of HIV-1 protease. In the crystal lattice of the HIV-2 protease complexed with L-735,524, the inhibitor is chelated to the active site of the homodimeric enzyme in one orientation. This feature allows an unambiguous assignment of protein-ligand interactions from the electron density map. Both Fourier and difference Fourier maps reveal clearly the closure of the flap domains of the protease upon L-735,524 binding. Specific interactions between the enzyme and the inhibitor include the hydroxy group of the hydroxyaminopentane amide moiety of L-735,524 ligating to the carboxyl groups of the essential Asp-25 and Asp-25' enzymic residues and the amide oxygens of the inhibitor hydrogen bonding to the backbone amide nitrogen of Ile-50 and Ile-50' via an intervening water molecule. A second bridging water molecule is found between the amide nitrogen N2 of L-735,524 and the carboxyl oxygen of Asp-29'. Although other hydrogen bonds also add to binding, an equally significant contribution to affinity arises from hydrophobic interactions between the protease and the inhibitor throughout the pseudo-symmetric S1/S1', S2/S2', and S3/S3' regions of the enzyme. Except for its pyridine ring, all lipophilic moieties (t-butyl, indanyl, benzyl, and piperidyl) of L-735,524 are rigidly defined in the active site.
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PMID:Crystal structure at 1.9-A resolution of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) II protease complexed with L-735,524, an orally bioavailable inhibitor of the HIV proteases. 792 52

The aspartyl protease of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is an important target for chemotherapeutic intervention because of its key role in cleaving the HIV gag-pol polyprotein during viral assembly and budding. Short peptides and peptidomimetics, which bind to the active site of the HIV aspartyl protease and inhibit processing of the polyprotein, have been synthesized. These compounds are active against HIV in vitro, but many face substantial development problems because of their rapid elimination from the body in bile and urine. Refinement of these agents appears to be necessary if they are to become useful clinically. Recently, we developed a novel chemical strategy for increasing plasma levels of HIV protease inhibitory peptides, which involves the attachment of a biodegradable phospholipid group to the C-terminus of a pentapeptide, iBOC-[L-Phe]-[D-beta-Nal]-Pip-[alpha-(OH)-Leu]-Val (7194). We coupled phosphatidylethanolamine to the C-terminal valine of 7194 to make a phospholipid prodrug (7196). In vitro assays in HT4-6C cells infected with HIV-1 showed that the antiviral activity of the C-terminal phospholipid prodrug, 7196, was equal to that of the free peptide, 7194. Similar results were obtained in vitro when a related pentapeptide (7140) was derivatized at the N-terminal with dipalmitoylphosphatidylethanolamine-succinic acid (7172). Tritium-labeled 7194 and 7196 were prepared and injected intravenously into rats at 3 mumol/kg; then the plasma was assayed for native compound and metabolites by HPLC radioactivity flow detection. The peak plasma level of the tritium-labeled lipid prodrug (7196) was 36 microM versus 1.6 microM for the free protease inhibitor pentapeptide (7194). The area under the curve of the phospholipid prodrug (7196) was 48-fold greater and its mean residence time was increased 43-fold versus the free peptide (7194). Phospholipid prodrugs appear to offer an alternative approach to optimizing in vivo performance of HIV protease inhibitors and other small peptides.
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PMID:Phospholipid prodrug inhibitors of the HIV protease. Antiviral activity and pharmacokinetics in rats. 794 39

The proteolytic processing sites of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) Gag precursor are cleaved in a sequential manner by the viral protease. We investigated the factors that regulate sequential processing. When full-length Gag protein was digested with recombinant HIV-1 protease in vitro, four of the five major processing sites in Gag were cleaved at rates that differ by as much as 400-fold. Three of these four processing sites were cleaved independently of the others. The CA/p2 site, however, was cleaved approximately 20-fold faster when the adjacent downstream p2/NC site was blocked from cleavage or when the p2 domain of Gag was deleted. These results suggest that the presence of a C-terminal p2 tail on processing intermediates slows cleavage at the upstream CA/p2 site. We also found that lower pH selectively accelerated cleavage of the CA/p2 processing site in the full-length precursor and as a peptide primarily by a sequence-based mechanism rather than by a change in protein conformation. Deletion of the p2 domain of Gag results in released virions that are less infectious despite the presence of the processed final products of Gag. These findings suggest that the p2 domain of HIV-1 Gag regulates the rate of cleavage at the CA/p2 processing site during sequential processing in vitro and in infected cells and that p2 may function in the proper assembly of virions.
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PMID:The p2 domain of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 Gag regulates sequential proteolytic processing and is required to produce fully infectious virions. 796 91

Site-directed mutagenesis of autolysis sites in the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) protease was applied in an analysis of enzyme specificity; the protease served, therefore, as both enzyme and substrate in this study. Inspection of natural substrates of all retroviral proteases revealed the absence of beta-branched amino acids at the P1 site and of Lys anywhere from P2 through P2'. Accordingly, several mutants of the HIV-1 protease were engineered in which these excluded amino acids were substituted at their respective P positions at the three major sites of autolysis in the wild-type protease (Leu5-Trp6, Leu33-Glu34, and Leu63-Ile64), and the mutant enzymes were evaluated in terms of their resistance to autodegradation. All of the mutant HIV-1 proteases, expressed as inclusion bodies in Escherichia coli, were enzymatically active after refolding, and all showed greatly diminished rates of cleavage at the altered autolysis sites. Some, however, were not viable enzymatically because of poor physical characteristics. This was the case for mutants having Lys replacements of Glu residues at P2' and for another in which all three P1 leucines were replaced by Ile. However, one of the mutant proteases, Q7K/L33I/L63I, was highly resistant to autolysis, while retaining the physical properties, specificity, and susceptibility to inhibition of the wild-type enzyme. Q7K/L33I/L63I should find useful application as a stable surrogate of the HIV-1 protease. Overall, our results can be interpreted relative to a model in which the active HIV-1 protease dimer is in equilibrium with monomeric, disordered species which serve as the substrates for autolysis.
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PMID:The HIV-1 protease as enzyme and substrate: mutagenesis of autolysis sites and generation of a stable mutant with retained kinetic properties. 806 16

The protease of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is essential for the processing of GAG and POL polyproteins and maturation of the virus particles. Using recombinant protease and a truncated GAG polyprotein as substrate, we developed a Western blot assay for the evaluation of inhibitors of the enzyme. Two statine-based inhibitors of the enzyme, KH161 and KH164, were effective in blocking the replication of HIV-1 in acutely infected human T4 lymphoid cells, with potency approaching that of zidovudine (ZDV) when tested in parallel. In chronically infected cells, the production of infectious virus was inhibited by KH161 and KH164, while ZDV was ineffective. Both KH161 and KH164 were also active as antivirals against the replication of murine leukemia virus (MLV) in cultured mouse cells. In an animal model of a murine retroviral disease, KH164 was shown to inhibit in a dose-dependent manner the progression of the disease induced by Friend virus complex (a mixture of Friend MLV and spleen focus-forming virus). The results suggest that the progression of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) may be impeded by inhibitors of HIV-1 protease.
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PMID:Impeded progression of Friend disease in mice by an inhibitor of retroviral proteases. 809 63


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