A quantitative structure-activity relationship study for structurally diverse HIV-1 protease inhibitors: contribution of conformational flexibility to inhibitory activity

In this study, we investigated by linear regression model the SAR data of the 15 HIV-1 protease inhibitors possessing structurally diverse scaffolds. First, a regression model was developed only using the enzyme-inhibitor interaction energy as a term of the model, but did not provide a good correlation with the inhibitory activity (R² = 0.580 and Q² = 0.500). Then, we focused on the conformational flexibility of the inhibitors which may represent the diversity of the inhibitors, and added two conformational parameters into the model, respectively: the number of rotatable bonds of ligands (ΔSrot) and the distortion energy of ligands (ΔElig). The regression model by adding ΔElig successfully improved the quality of the model (R² = 0.771 and Q² = 0.713) while the model with ΔSrot was unsuccessful. The prediction for a training inhibitor by the ΔElig model also showed good agreement with experimental activity. These results suggest that the conformational flexibility of HIV-1 protease inhibitors directly contributes to the enzyme inhibition.     

Isolation, structure elucidation and biological activity of metabolites from Sch-642305-producing endophytic fungus Phomopsis sp. CMU-LMA

Eight polyketide compounds were isolated from the cultivation broth of Phomopsis sp. CMU-LMA. We have recently described LMA-P1, a bicyclic 10-membered macrolide, obtained as a bioconversion derivative of Sch-642305, the major compound isolated in this study. Benquinol is the ethyl ester derivative of the 13-dihydroxytetradeca-2,4,8-trienoic acid produced by Valsa ambiens. This compound is concomitantly produced with the 6,13-dihydroxytetradeca-2,4,8-trienoic acid (DHTTA) previously isolated from Mycosphaerellarubella. The absolute configuration of the new compound, (2R,3R,4S,5R)-3-hydroxy-2,4-dimethyl-5-[(S,Z)-3-methylpentenyl]-tetrahydro-pyranone LMA-P2 was confirmed by X-ray crystallography. The δ-lactone 2,3-dihydroxytetradecan-5-olide (DHTO) was previously isolated from Seiridium unicorne. This compound may form through the cyclization of the methyl-2,3,5-trihydroxytridecanoate LMA-P3, a new linear polyketide isolated in this study. Benquoine, a new 14-membered lactone generated from the cyclization of benquinol, is proposed as the key precursor for the biosynthesis of Sch-642305. Antimicrobial activity and cancer cell viability inhibition by the new compounds were investigated. Benquoine exhibits antimicrobial activity against Gram positive bacteria, and cytotoxicity against HCT-116 cancer cell line.     

Characterization and HIV-1 fusion inhibitory properties of monoclonal Fabs obtained from a human non-immune phage library selected against diverse epitopes of the ectodomain of HIV-1 gp41

Using a human non-immune phage library comprising more than 10(9) functional human antibody specificities in Fab format, we have been able to select a set of eight monoclonal Fabs targeted against diverse epitopes of the ectodomain of gp41 from HIV-1. The antigens used for panning the antibodies comprised two soluble, disulfide-linked, trimeric polypeptides derived from gp41, N(CCG)-gp41 and N35(CCG)-N13. The former comprises an exposed trimeric coiled-coil of the N-helices of gp41 fused in helical phase to the minimal thermostable ectodomain of gp41, while the latter comprises only the trimeric coiled-coil of N-helices. The selected Fabs were probed by Western blot analysis against four antigens: N(CCG)-gp41, N35CCG-N13, N34CCG (a smaller version of N35CCG-N13), and the minimal thermostable ectodomain core of gp41 in its six-helix bundle conformation (6-HB). Three classes of Fabs were found: class A (two Fabs) interact predominantly with the 6-HB; class B (four Fabs) interact with both the 6-HB and the internal trimeric coiled-coil of N-helices; and class C (two Fabs) interact specifically with the internal trimeric coiled-coil of N-helices. The IC50 values for the Fabs, expressed as bivalent mini-antibodies, ranged from 6 microg/ml to 60 microg/ml in a quantitative vaccinia virus-based reporter gene assay for HIV-1 envelope-mediated cell fusion using the envelope from the HIV-1 T tropic strain LAV. The two most potent fusion inhibitors belonged to class B. This panel of Fabs provides a set of useful probes for studying HIV-1 envelope-mediated cell fusion and may serve as a basis for developing Fab-based anti-HIV-1 therapeutics.     

A radiochemical technique with potential for revealing novel fungal metabolites according to expression of specific biosynthetic activities

Fungal secondary metabolites are mostly derived from a few key intermediates in primary metabolism, such as acetate and some amino acids. Classical screens for novel fungal compounds of possible industrial interest have used chromatographic displays of extract components, as was the practice for plant natural products, followed by structural determination and pharmacological study. In contrast, modern robotic screens usually focus initially on specific bioassay applied to fermentation products and crude extracts. Both strategies are expensive in terms of human resources and/or in sophisticated equipment. A relatively inexpensive technique, exploiting biosynthetic principles through use of ¹⁴C-labelled probes to recognise particular structural features by autoradiography of tlc plates is described and discussed. Application to 80 isolates of filamentous fungi from Caribbean and European/Mediterranean environments enabled recognition of arrays of metabolites according to their biosynthetic origin, showing the potential of the technique in novel product discovery in unsophisticated laboratory facilities, as exemplified by reference to subsequent discovery of novel metabolites produced by Amorosia littoralis.     

Rational design of highly potent HIV-1 fusion inhibitory proteins: implication for developing antiviral therapeutics

Recombinant protein containing one heptad-repeat 1 (HR1) segment and one HR2 segment of the HIV-1 gp41 (HR1-HR2) has been shown to fold into thermally stable six-helix bundle, representing the fusogenic core of gp41. In this study, we have used the fusogenic core as a scaffold to design HIV-1 fusion inhibitory proteins by linking another HR1 to the C terminus of HR1-HR2 (HR121) or additional HR2 to the N terminus of HR1-HR2 (HR212). Both recombinant proteins could be abundantly and solubly expressed and easily purified, exhibiting high stability and potent inhibitory activity on HIV-1 fusion with IC50 values of 16.2+/-2.8 and 2.8+/-0.63 nM, respectively. These suggest that these rationally designed proteins can be further developed as novel anti-HIV-1 therapeutics.     

Nitrogen-containing polyhydroxylated aromatics as HIV-1 integrase inhibitors: synthesis,structure-activity relationship analysis,and biological activity

Four series of forty-five nitrogen-containing polyhydroxylated aromatics based on caffeic acid phenethyl ester were designed and synthesized as HIV-1 integrase (IN) inhibitors. Most of these compounds inhibited IN catalytic activities in low micromolar range. Among these new analogues, compounds 9e and 9f were the most potent IN inhibitors with IC₅₀ value of 0.7 μM against strand transfer reaction. Their key structure-activity relationships were also discussed.     

Design,synthesis and activity evaluation of novel peptide fusion inhibitors targeting HIV-1 gp41

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), the pathogen of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), causes about 2 million people to death every year. Fusion inhibitors targeted the envelope protein (gp41) represent a novel and alternative approach for anti-AIDS therapy, which terminates the HIV-1 life cycle at an early stage. Using CP621-652 as a template, a series of peptides were designed, synthesized and evaluated in vitro assays. An interesting phenomenon was found that the substitution of hydrophobic residues at solvent accessible sites could increase the anti-HIV activity when the C-terminal sequence was extended with an enough numbers of amino acids. After the active peptides was synthesized and evaluated, peptide 8 showed the best anti-HIV-1 IIIB whole cell activity (MAGI IC₅₀ = 53.02 nM). Further study indicated that peptide 8 bound with the gp41 NHR helix, and then blocked the conformation of 6-helix, thus inhibited virus–cell membrane fusion. The results would be helpful for the design of peptide fusion inhibitors against HIV-1 infection.     

Design and synthesis of novel pyrimidone analogues as HIV-1 integrase inhibitors

A series of novel pyrimidone analogues have been designed and synthesized as HIV-1 integrase (IN) inhibitors. This study demonstrated that introducing a substituent in the N1-position of the pyrimidone scaffold does not significantly influence IN inhibitory activity. Molecular docking studies showed these compounds could occupy the IN active site and form pi–pi interactions with viral DNA nucleotides DC16 and DA17 to displace reactive viral DNA 3′OH and block intasome activity.     

Semi-synthesis of oxygenated dolabellane diterpenes with highly in vitro anti-HIV-1 activity

Research on dolabellane diterpenes of brown algae Dictyota spp. has shown that these diterpenoids have strong anti-HIV-1 activity, but there are not data about antiviral activity of dolabellane diterpenes isolated from octocorals, which are antipodes of those isolated from the brown algae. Dolabellanes 13-keto-1(R),11(S)-dolabella-3(E),7(E),12(18)-triene (1) and β-Araneosene (2) were isolated from the Caribbean octocoral Eunicea laciniata, and both showed low anti-HIV-1 activity and low toxicity. Since it was shown that oxygenated dolabellanes from algae have better anti-HIV-1 activity, in this work some derivatives of the main dolabellane of E. laciniata 1 were obtained by epoxidation (3), epoxide opening (4), and allylic oxidation (5). The derivatives showed significant improvement in the anti-HIV-1potency (100-fold), being compounds 3 and 5 the most active ones. Their high antiviral activities, along with their low cytotoxicity, make them promissory antiviral compounds; and it is worth noting that the absolute configuration at the ring junction in the dolabellane skeleton does not seem to be determinant in the antiviral potency of these diterpeneoids.     

Two new secondary metabolites,saccharochlorines A and B,from a marine bacterium Saccharomonospora sp. KCTC-19160

Two new chlorinated secondary metabolites, saccharochlorines A and B (1 and 2), were isolated from the saline cultivation of a marine-derived bacterium Saccharomonospora sp. (KCTC-19160). The chemical structures of the saccharochlorines were elucidated by 2D NMR and MS spectroscopic data. Saccharochlorines A and B (1 and 2) exhibit weak inhibition of β-secretase (BACE1) in biochemical inhibitory assay, but they induced the release of Aβ (1–40) and Aβ (1–42) in H4-APP neuroglial cells. This discrepancy might be derived from the differences between the cellular and sub-cellular environments or the epigenetic stimulation of BACE1 expression.     

Design, synthesis, and biological activity of a novel series of 2,5-disubstituted furans/pyrroles as HIV-1 fusion inhibitors targeting gp41

Based on molecular docking analysis of earlier results, we designed a series of 2,5-disubstituted furans/pyrroles (5a-h) as HIV-1 entry inhibitors. Compounds were synthesized by Suzuki-Miyaura cross coupling, followed by a Knoevenagel condensation or Wittig reaction. Four of these compounds were found to be effective in inhibiting HIV-1 infection, with the best compounds being 5f and 5h, which exhibited significant inhibition on HIV-1(IIIB) infection at micromolar levels with low cytotoxicity. These compounds are also effective in blocking HIV-1 mediated cell-cell fusion and the gp41 six-helix bundle formation, suggesting that they are also HIV-1 fusion inhibitors targeting gp41 and have potential to be developed as a new class of anti-HIV-1 agents.     

HIV-1辅助蛋白Vif的结构与功能

HIV-1 Vif(viral infectivity factor)蛋白是由保守的vif基因编码的碱性蛋白质,是HIV-1病毒的辅助调节蛋白之一.研究表明Vif蛋白具有调节病毒侵入、组装、出芽和成熟等功能.此外,Vif蛋白能够特异性地与体内抗病毒因子APOBEC3G相互作用,增强病毒的感染性.因此,针对HIV-1Vif蛋白进行抑制剂设计已经成为抗HIV药物研究的热点之一.本文对HIV-1Vif蛋白的结构与功能研究的最新进展进行了综述.     

Exploration of the effects of sequence variations between HIV-1 and HIV-2 proteases on their three-dimensional structures

Abstract

HIV protease inhibitors (PIs) approved by the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) are a major class of antiretroviral. HIV-2 protease (PR2) is naturally resistant to most of them as PIs were designed for HIV-1 protease (PR1). In this study, we explored the impact of amino-acid substitutions between PR1 and PR2 on the structure of protease (PR) by comparing the structural variability of 13 regions using 24 PR1 and PR2 structures complexed with diverse ligands. Our analyses confirmed structural rigidity of the catalytic region and highlighted the important role of three regions in the conservation of the catalytic region conformation. Surprisingly, we showed that the flap region, corresponding to a flexible region, exhibits similar conformations in PR1 and PR2. Furthermore, we identified regions exhibiting different conformations in PR1 and PR2, which could be explained by the intrinsic flexibility of these regions, by crystal packing, or by PR1 and PR2 substitutions. Some substitutions induce structural changes in the R2 and R4 regions that could have an impact on the properties of PI-binding site and could thus modify PI binding mode. Substitutions involved in structural changes in the elbow region could alter the flexibility of the PR2 flap regions relative to PR1, and thus play a role in the transition from the semi-open form to the closed form, and have an impact on ligand binding. These results improve the understanding of the impact of sequence variations between PR1 and PR2 on the natural resistance of HIV-2 to commercially available PIs.

Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma     

A quantitative structure-activity relationship study for structurally diverse HIV-1 protease inhibitors: Contribution of conformational flexibility to inhibitory activity

In this study, we investigated by linear regression model the SAR data of the 15 HIV-1 protease inhibitors possessing structurally diverse scaffolds. First, a regression model was developed only using the enzyme-inhibitor interaction energy as a term of the model, but did not provide a good correlation with the inhibitory activity (R2 = 0.580 and Q2 = 0.500). Then, we focused on the conformational flexibility of the inhibitors which may represent the diversity of the inhibitors, and added two conformational parameters into the model, respectively: the number of rotatable bonds of ligands (deltaSrot) and the distortion energy of ligands (deltaElig). The regression model by adding deltaElig successfully improved the quality of the model (R2 = 0.771 and Q2 = 0.713) while the model with deltaSrot was unsuccessful. The prediction for a training inhibitor by the deltaElig model also showed good agreement with experimental activity. These results suggest that the conformational flexibility of HIV-1 protease inhibitors directly contributes to the enzyme inhibition.     

Overcoming drug resistance in HIV-1 chemotherapy: the binding thermodynamics of Amprenavir and TMC-126 to wild-type and drug-resistant mutants of the HIV-1 protease

Amprenavir is one of six protease inhibitors presently approved for clinical use in the therapeutic treatment of AIDS. Biochemical and clinical studies have shown that, unlike other inhibitors, Amprenavir is severely affected by the protease mutation I50V, located in the flap region of the enzyme. TMC-126 is a second-generation inhibitor, chemically related to Amprenavir, with a reported extremely low susceptibility to existing resistant mutations including I50V. In this paper, we have studied the thermodynamic and molecular origin of the response of these two inhibitors to the I50V mutation and the double active-site mutation V82F/I84V that affects all existing clinical inhibitors. Amprenavir binds to the wild-type HIV-1 protease with high affinity (5.0 x 10(9) M(-1) or 200 pM) in a process equally favored by enthalpic and entropic contributions. The mutations I50V and V82F/I84V lower the binding affinity of Amprenavir by a factor of 147 and 104, respectively. TMC-126, on the other hand, binds to the wild-type protease with extremely high binding affinity (2.6 x 10(11) M(-1) or 3.9 pM) in a process in which enthalpic contributions overpower entropic contributions by almost a factor of 4. The mutations I50V and V82F/I84V lower the binding affinity of TMC-126 by only a factor of 16 and 11, respectively, indicating that the binding affinity of TMC-126 to the drug-resistant mutants is still higher than the affinity of Amprenavir to the wild-type protease. Analysis of the data for TMC-126 and KNI-764, another second-generation inhibitor, indicates that their low susceptibility to mutations is caused by their ability to compensate for the loss of interactions with the mutated target by a more favorable entropy of binding.     

Design,synthesis and biological evaluation of 3-hydroxyquinazoline-2,4(1H,3H)-diones as dual inhibitors of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase-associated RNase H and integrase

A novel series of 3-hydroxyquinazoline-2,4(1H,3H)-diones derivatives has been designed and synthesized. Their biochemical characterization revealed that most of the compounds were effective inhibitors of HIV-1 RNase H activity at sub to low micromolar concentrations. Among them, II-4 was the most potent in enzymatic assays, showing an IC₅₀ value of 0.41 ± 0.13 μM, almost five times lower than the IC₅₀ obtained with β-thujaplicinol. In addition, II-4 was also effective in inhibiting HIV-1 IN strand transfer activity (IC₅₀ = 0.85 ± 0.18 μM) but less potent than raltegravir (IC₅₀ = 71 ± 14 nM). Despite its relatively low cytotoxicity, the efficiency of II-4 in cell culture was limited by its poor membrane permeability. Nevertheless, structure-activity relationships and molecular modeling studies confirmed the importance of tested 3-hydroxyquinazoline-2,4(1H,3H)-diones as useful leads for further optimization.     

HIV-1 tat基因改造及其蛋白表达、纯化与抗体制备

目的:为了方便实验室工作中HIV-1B'/C亚型及C亚型Tat蛋白的检测,制备了相应的Tat蛋白及其抗体。方法:将我国HIV-1B'/C亚型流行株tat基因的第1个外显子和HIV-1C亚型tat基因的第2个外显子融合在一起,将密码子替换为大肠杆菌的优势密码子,通过合成引物、PCR拼接的方法,获得目的基因序列;在原核系统中与pET32a 载体中的His·Tag、Trx·Tag及S·Tag进行融合表达;目的蛋白经Ni 金属螯合层析柱纯化后,用于免疫家兔,制备多克隆抗体。结果:PCR拼接获得306bp的目的基因序列;在原核系统中融合表达得到相对分子质量约31000的融合蛋白,占菌体总蛋白的21%。纯化后的融合蛋白免疫家兔,制备了多克隆抗体,Western印迹结果显示,获得的多克隆抗体与HIV-1B'/C亚型的Tat蛋白反应良好;间接免疫荧光结果表明,获得的多克隆抗体与HIV-1B'/C亚型和C亚型的Tat蛋白都能产生特异性反应。结论:制备的多克隆抗体能够使用间接免疫荧光方法检测HIV-1C亚型的Tat蛋白,使用Western印迹方法和间接免疫荧光方法都能检测HIV-1B'/C亚型的Tat蛋白。     

Design,synthesis and biological evaluation of novel HIV-1 protease inhibitors with pentacyclic triterpenoids as P2-ligands

The design, synthesis and SAR study of a new series of HIV-1 protease inhibitors with pentacyclic triterpenoids as P2 ligands and phenylsulfonamide as P2′ ligands were discussed. These compounds exhibited micromolar inhibitory potency, among which compound T1c displayed HIV-1 protease inhibition with IC₅₀ values of 0.12?μM, which was 67 times the inhibitory activity of its raw material Ursolic acid (8.0?μM).