A new series of HAPs as anti-HBV agents targeting at capsid assembly

A series of novel Heteroaryldihydropyrimidines (HAPs) derivatives were designed and synthesized as potent inhibitors of HBV capsid assembly. These compounds were prepared from efforts to optimize an earlier series of HAPs, and compounds Mo1, Mo7, Mo8, Mo10, Mo12, and Mo13 demonstrated potent inhibition of HBV DNA replication at submicromolar range.     

Expression and immunological analysis of capsid protein precursor of swine vesicular disease virus HK/70

VP1, a capsid protein of swine vesicular disease virus, was cloned from the SVDV HK/70 strain and inserted into retroviral vector pBABE puro, and expressed in PK15 cells by an retroviral expression system. The ability of the VP1 protein to induce an immune response was then evaluated in guinea pigs. Western blot and ELISA results indicated that the VP1 protein can be recognized by SVDV positive serum, Furthermore,anti-SVDV specific antibodies and lymphocyte proliferation were elicited and increased by VP1 protein after vaccination. These results encourage further work towards the development of a vaccine against SVDV infection.     

HIV-1 protease regulation: The role of the major homology region and adjacent C-terminal capsid sequences

The maturation of human immunodeficiency type-1 virions is accomplished through the proteolytic processing of Gag and GagPol precursor proteins by the viral protease (PR). Since virions must be assembled at the cell surface from uncleaved precursor molecules, intracellular activation of PR must be inhibited. We have previously developed a system where the intracellular activity of PR, associated with GagPol, was inhibited by the expression of Gagin trans. The disproportionate synthesis of Gag inhibits the activation of PR in the cytoplasm. Sequences capable of mediating this inhibition were localized to capsid. In this communication, the region of HIV-1 capsid capable of mediating inhibition was further defined and shown to require the major homology region of capsid within Gag.     

银染色测定粘虫核多角体病毒多角体基因序列

LsMNPV DNA用EcoRV酶切进行基因组克降,用AcMNPV的部分多角体基因顺序DNA片段作探针,菌落原位杂交法结合测序筛选到分别含LsMNPV部分多角体基因的重组质粒pLsEV1和pLsPH5。用银染色PCR线性扩增双脱氧法测序,发现LsMNPv的完整基因即位于这两个片段上。LsMNPV多角体基因长741bp,编码区碱基同源性与AcMNPV和MbMNPV分别为80.0％和97.0％,氨基酸同源性分别为89.8和97.5％。氨基酸组成中以谷氨酸(Glu)含量最高,谷氨酰胺和色氨酸含量最低。密码子选用以第三个碱基为嘧啶的密码子频率最高。多角体蛋白N端有一类似信号肽结构的26个氨基酸的疏水区。     

脊髓灰质炎病毒各代表株壳蛋白二级结构及亲水概率的电子计算机预测

本文用脊髓灰质炎病毒3个型6个强弱代表株壳蛋白一级结构,借助电子计算机预测和计算出病毒壳蛋白的二级结构和亲水概率。     

人类免疫缺陷病毒1型(HIV-1)核心蛋白(p24)在大肠杆菌中的表达、纯化及鉴定

在大肠杆菌中,利用新构建的含Ｔ７噬菌体ｇ－１０核糖体结合位点（ＲＢＳ）,以及λ噬菌体ＰＲ启动子的新型原核表达载体,通过表达ｇａｇ－ｐｏｌ基因片段,获得了具有天然序列的人类免疫缺陷病毒１型（ＨＩＶ－１）核心蛋白ｐ２４（ＣＡ）的高效表达。克隆的ｇａｇ－ｐｏｌ基因片段在其阅读框架移位区域插入了４ｂｐ碱基,其表达的病毒蛋白酶在阅读框架上与ｇａｇ一致,从而实现了对ｇａｇ－ｐｏｌ融合蛋白的有效加工,产生成熟的核心蛋白ｐ２４及其它产物。重组ｐ２４以可溶形式存在,可以被抗ｐ２４的单克隆抗体特异识别。测定的Ｎ－端７个氨基酸序列与从病毒纯化的ｐ２４完全一致,在使用硫酸铵沉淀后,采用两步离子柱层析,可将重组蛋白纯化到９５％以上的纯度。ＥＬＩＳＡ分析表明,纯化的ｐ２４可以作为特异性很强的试剂而用于ＨＩＶ感染的诊断及病情的预后,并可用于ｐ２４的生化及结构分析。     

Virtual screening based identification of novel small-molecule inhibitors targeted to the HIV-1 capsid

The hydrophobic cavity of the C-terminal domain (CTD) of HIV-1 capsid has been recently validated as potential target for antiviral drugs by peptide-based inhibitors; however, there is no report yet of any small molecule compounds that target this hydrophobic cavity. In order to fill this gap and discover new classes of ant-HIV-1 inhibitors, we undertook a docking-based virtual screening and subsequent analog search, and medicinal chemistry approaches to identify small molecule inhibitors against this target. This article reports for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, identification of diverse classes of inhibitors that efficiently inhibited the formation of mature-like viral particles verified under electron microscope (EM) and showed potential as anti-HIV-1 agents in a viral infectivity assay against a wide range of laboratory-adapted as well as primary isolates in MT-2 cells and PBMC. In addition, the virions produced after the HIV-1 infected cells were treated with two of the most active compounds showed drastically reduced infectivity confirming the potential of these compounds as anti-HIV-1 agents. We have derived a comprehensive SAR from the antiviral data. The SAR analyses will be useful in further optimizing the leads to potential anti-HIV-1 agents.     

Purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis of the phage T4 vertex protein gp24 and its mutant forms

The study of bacteriophage T4 assembly has revealed regulatory mechanisms pertinent not only to viruses but also to macromolecular complexes. The capsid of bacteriophage T4 is composed of the major capsid protein gp23, and a minor capsid protein gp24, which is arranged as pentamers at the vertices of the capsid. In this study the T4 capsid protein gp24 and its mutant forms were overexpressed and purified to homogeneity. The overexpression from plasmid vectors of all the constructs in Escherichia coli yields biologically active protein in vivo as determined by assembly of active virus following infection with inactivated gene 24 mutant viruses. The gp24 mutant was subjected to surface entropy reduction by mutagenesis and reductive alkylation in order to improve its crystallization properties and diffraction quality. To determine if surface mutagenesis targeting would result in diffractable crystals, two glutamate to alanine mutations (E89A,E90A) were introduced. We report here the biochemical observations and consequent mutagenesis experiment that resulted in improvements in the stability, crystallizability and crystal quality of gp24 without affecting the overall folding. Rational modification of the protein surface to achieve crystallization appears promising for improving crystallization behavior and crystal diffracting qualities. The crystal of gp24(E89A,E90A) diffracted to 2.6A resolution compared to wild-type gp24 at 3.80A resolution under the same experimental conditions. Surface mutation proved to be a better method than reductive methylation for improving diffraction quality of the gp24 crystals.     

Recombinant expression of Garlic virus C (GARV-C) capsid protein in insect cells and its potential for the production of specific antibodies

Garlic cultivars in Brazil are infected by a complex of viruses and for some virus species, such as the allexivirus, purification of the virions is sometimes cumbersume. To overcome this problem, recombinant expression of viral proteins in heterologous systems is an alternative method for producing antibodies. The capsid gene from Garlic virus C (GarV-C), an Allexivirus, was inserted into the genome of Autographa californica multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV) generating the recombinant virus vSynGarV-C. The recombinant protein expression was confirmed by SDS-PAGE and western-blot of extracts from recombinant virus infected insect cells, where a protein band of approximately 32 KDa was observed only in extracts from recombinant infected cells. This protein corresponded to the predicted size of the capsid protein of the GarV-C. A rabbit polyclonal antibody was raised against this protein, shown to be specific for the GarV-C protein in western-blot and dot-Elisa, however with a low titer.     

Optimization of a 1,5-dihydrobenzo[b][1,4]diazepine-2,4-dione series of HIV capsid assembly inhibitors 1: Addressing configurational instability through scaffold modification

The optimization of a 1,5-dihydrobenzo[b][1,4]diazepine-2,4-dione series of inhibitors of HIV-1 capsid assembly that possess a labile stereocenter at C3 is described. Quaternization of the C3 position of compound 1 in order to prevent racemization gave compound 2, which was inactive in our capsid disassembly assay. A likely explanation for this finding was revealed by in silico analysis predicting a dramatic increase in energy of the bioactive conformation upon quaternization of the C3 position. Replacement of the C3 of the diazepine ring with a nitrogen atom to give the 1,5-dihydro-benzo[f][1,3,5]triazepine-2,4-dione analog 4 was well tolerated. Introduction of a rigid spirocyclic system at the C3 position gave configurationally stable 1,5-dihydrobenzo[b][1,4]diazepine-2,4-dione analog 5, which was able to access the bioactive conformation without a severe energetic penalty and inhibit capsid assembly. Preliminary structure–activity relationships (SAR) and X-ray crystallographic data show that knowledge from the 1,5-dihydrobenzo[b][1,4]diazepine-2,4-dione series of inhibitors of HIV-1 capsid assembly can be transferred to these new scaffolds.