The global AIDS epidemic has claimed the lives of more than 20 million people since 1981. Another 10 million are now living with HIV and most of these are likely to develop AIDS over the course of the next decade. In spite of the various treatment protocols available, including the mainstream
Substitute for another bond. Docking simulations of two potent inhibitors that bear the 1,2,3‐triazole moiety produced two conformations of approximately equal energy. Further analysis of the protease by X‐ray crystallography solved the ambiguity of the binding mode and revealed that the triazole ring is an effective amide surrogate and retains all the hydrogen bonds in the active site (see figure).
The crystal structures of wild-type HIV protease (HIV PR) in the absence of substrate or inhibitor in two related crystal forms at 1.4 and 2.15 A resolution are reported. In one crystal form HIV PR adopts an 'open' conformation with a 7.7 A separation between the tips of the flaps in the homodimer. In the other crystal form the tips of the flaps are 'curled' towards the 80s loop, forming contacts across the local twofold axis. The 2.3 A resolution crystal structure of a sixfold mutant of HIV PR in the absence of substrate or inhibitor is also reported. The mutant HIV PR, which evolved in response to treatment with the potent inhibitor TL-3, contains six point mutations relative to the wild-type enzyme (L24I, M46I, F53L, L63P, V77I, V82A). In this structure the flaps also adopt a 'curled' conformation, but are separated and not in contact. Comparison of the apo structures to those with TL-3 bound demonstrates the extent of conformational change induced by inhibitor binding, which includes reorganization of the packing between twofold-related flaps. Further comparison with six other apo HIV PR structures reveals that the 'open' and 'curled' conformations define two distinct families in HIV PR. These conformational states include hinge motion of residues at either end of the flaps, opening and closing the entire beta-loop, and translational motion of the flap normal to the dimer twofold axis and relative to the 80s loop. The alternate conformations also entail changes in the beta-turn at the tip of the flap. These observations provide insight into the plasticity of the flap domains, the nature of their motions and their critical role in binding substrates and inhibitors.
FIV is a significant pathogen in the cat and is, in addition, the smallest available natural model for the study of lentivirus infections. Although divergent at the amino acid level, the cat lentivirus has an abundance of structural and pathophysiological commonalities with HIV and thus serves well as a model for development of intervention strategies relevant to infection in both cats and man. The following review highlights both the strengths and shortcomings of the FIV/cat model, particular as regards development of antiviral drugs.
Treatment with protease inhibitors, a component of Highly Active Anti-retroviral Therapy (HAART), often results in viral resistance. Structural and biochemical characterization of a 6X mutant arising from in vitro selection with compound 1, a C2-symmetric diol protease inhibitor, has been previously described. We now show that compound 2, a copper(I)-catalyzed 1,2,3-triazole derived compound previously shown to be potently effective against wild-type protease (IC50 = 6.0 nM), has low nM activity (IC50 = 15.7 nM) against the multidrug-resistant 6X HIV-1 protease mutant. Compound 2 displays similar efficacy against wild-type and 6X HIV-1 in viral replication assays. While structural studies of compound 1 bound to wild type and mutant protease revealed a progressive change in binding mode in the mutants, the 1.3 Å resolution 6X protease–compound 2 crystal structure reveals nearly identical interactions for 2 as in the wild-type protease complex with very little change in compound 2 or protease conformation.
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