scholarly journals Hypersusceptibility to Substrate Analogs Conferred by Mutations in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Reverse Transcriptase

2006 ◽  
Vol 80 (14) ◽  
pp. 7169-7178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Smith ◽  
Donovan J. Anderson ◽  
Bradley D. Preston

ABSTRACT Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) reverse transcriptase (RT) contains four structural motifs (A, B, C, and D) that are conserved in polymerases from diverse organisms. Motif B interacts with the incoming nucleotide, the template strand, and key active-site residues from other motifs, suggesting that motif B is an important determinant of substrate specificity. To examine the functional role of this region, we performed “random scanning mutagenesis” of 11 motif B residues and screened replication-competent mutants for altered substrate analog sensitivity in culture. Single amino acid replacements throughout the targeted region conferred resistance to lamivudine and/or hypersusceptibility to zidovudine (AZT). Substitutions at residue Q151 increased the sensitivity of HIV-1 to multiple nucleoside analogs, and a subset of these Q151 variants was also hypersusceptible to the pyrophosphate analog phosphonoformic acid (PFA). Other AZT-hypersusceptible mutants were resistant to PFA and are therefore phenotypically similar to PFA-resistant variants selected in vitro and in infected patients. Collectively, these data show that specific amino acid replacements in motif B confer broad-spectrum hypersusceptibility to substrate analog inhibitors. Our results suggest that motif B influences RT-deoxynucleoside triphosphate interactions at multiple steps in the catalytic cycle of polymerization.

2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 693-701 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph T. C. Shieh ◽  
Julio Martín ◽  
Gordon Baltuch ◽  
Michael H. Malim ◽  
Francisco González-Scarano

ABSTRACT Microglia are the main reservoir for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) in the central nervous system (CNS), and multinucleated giant cells, the result of fusion of HIV-1-infected microglia and brain macrophages, are the neuropathologic hallmark of HIV dementia. One potential explanation for the formation of syncytia is viral adaptation for these CD4+ CNS cells. HIV-1BORI-15, a virus adapted to growth in microglia by sequential passage in vitro, mediates high levels of fusion and replicates more efficiently in microglia and monocyte-derived-macrophages than its unpassaged parent (J. M. Strizki, A. V. Albright, H. Sheng, M. O'Connor, L. Perrin, and F. Gonzalez-Scarano, J. Virol. 70:7654–7662, 1996). Since the interaction between the viral envelope glycoprotein and CD4 and the chemokine receptor mediates fusion and plays a key role in tropism, we have analyzed the HIV-1BORI-15 env as a fusogen and in recombinant and pseudotyped viruses. Its syncytium-forming phenotype is not the result of a switch in coreceptor use but rather of the HIV-1BORI-15envelope-mediated fusion of CD4+CCR5+ cells with greater efficiency than that of its parental strain, either by itself or in the context of a recombinant virus. Genetic analysis indicated that the syncytium-forming phenotype was due to four discrete amino acid differences in V1/V2, with a single-amino-acid change between the parent and the adapted virus (E153G) responsible for the majority of the effect. Additionally, HIV-1BORI-15 env-pseudotyped viruses were less sensitive to decreases in the levels of CD4 on transfected 293T cells, leading to the hypothesis that the differences in V1/V2 alter the interaction between this envelope and CD4 or CCR5, or both. In sum, the characterization of the envelope of HIV-1BORI-15, a highly fusogenic glycoprotein with genetic determinants in V1/V2, may lead to a better understanding of the relationship between HIV replication and syncytium formation in the CNS and of the importance of this region of gp120 in the interaction with CD4 and CCR5.


2002 ◽  
Vol 76 (18) ◽  
pp. 9152-9164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Llano ◽  
Tara Kelly ◽  
Maria Vanegas ◽  
Mary Peretz ◽  
Timothy E. Peterson ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Caveolin-1 (Cav-1) is a major protein constituent of caveolae, a type of plasma membrane raft. We observed that coexpression of human Cav-1 with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) blocked virion production from cells that are ordinarily highly permissive. Further investigation showed that this effect is specific, occurs at low ratios of Cav-1 to HIV-1 DNA, depends on expression of Cav-1 protein, and involves severely impaired expression of HIV-1 proteins. Cav-1 also blocked HIV-2 expression. In contrast, Cav-1 did not inhibit protein expression by a paramyxovirus and did not induce apoptosis or affect cellular morphology, cell viability, or cell cycle progression. Although only small amounts of HIV-1 virions were released from Cav-1-transfected cells, these were fully infectious. Deletion mutagenesis showed that the C-terminal 78 residues were as active as the full-length (178-amino-acid) protein in producing the block. In contrast, the 100 most N-terminal amino acids of Cav-1, which include the previously identified oligomerization and scaffolding domains, were shown to be dispensable. Study of single-amino-acid-exchange mutants of Cav-1 established that palmitoylation was not required. Additional deletion mutants then identified the hydrophobic, membrane-associated domain (residues 101 to 135) as the main determinant. Cellular distribution of wild-type and mutant proteins correlated with ability to block HIV-1 expression. Finally, Cav-2 also blocked HIV-1 expression. These data show that coexpression of caveolins can markedly inhibit expression of HIV proviral DNA and establish that the inhibition is mediated by the hydrophobic, membrane-associated domain.


2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (11) ◽  
pp. 5357-5362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hironori Sato ◽  
Yasuhiro Tomita ◽  
Kayo Shibamura ◽  
Teiichiro Shiino ◽  
Tuyoshi Miyakuni ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Changes in the drug susceptibility, gene lineage, and deduced amino acid sequences of the reverse transcriptase (RT) of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) subtype E following 3′-azido-3′-deoxythymidine (AZT) monotherapy or AZT–2′,3′-dideoxyinosine combination therapy were examined with sequential virus isolates from a single family. The changes were compared to those reported for HIV-1 subtype B, revealing striking similarities in selected phenotype and amino acids independent of differences in the RT backbone sequences that constantly distinguish the two subtypes. Particularly, identical amino acid substitutions were present simultaneously at four different positions (D67N, K70R, T215F, and K219Q) for high-level AZT resistance. These data suggest that HIV-1 subtypes E and B evolve convergently at the phenotypic and amino acid levels when the nucleoside analogue RT inhibitors act as selective forces.


2005 ◽  
Vol 79 (16) ◽  
pp. 10237-10246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Lohrengel ◽  
Felix Hermann ◽  
Isabel Hagmann ◽  
Heike Oberwinkler ◽  
Laura Scrivano ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The expression of a membrane-anchored gp41-derived peptide (M87) has been shown to confer protection from infection through human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) (Hildinger et al., J. Virol. 75:3038-3042, 2001). In an effort to characterize the mechanism of action of this membrane-anchored peptide in comparison to the soluble peptide T-20, we selected resistant variants of HIV-1NL4-3 and HIV-1BaL by serial virus passage using PM1 cells stably expressing peptide M87. Sequence analysis of the resistant isolates showed different patterns of selected point mutations in heptad repeat regions 1 and 2 (HR1 and HR2, respectively) for the two viruses analyzed. For HIV-1NL4-3 a single amino acid change at position 33 in HR1 (L33S) was selected, whereas for HIV-1BaL the majority of the sequences obtained showed two amino acid changes, one in HR1 and one in HR2 (I48V/N126K). In both selections the most important contiguous 3-amino-acid sequence, GIV, within HR1, associated with resistance to soluble T-20, was not changed. Site-directed mutagenesis studies confirmed the importance of the characterized point mutations to confer resistance to M87 as well as to soluble T-20 and T-649. Replication capacity and dual-color competition assays revealed that the double mutation I48V/N126K in HIV-1BaL results in a strong reduction of viral fitness, whereas the L33S mutation in HIV-1NL4-3 did enhance viral fitness compared to the respective parental viruses. However, the selected point mutations did not confer resistance to the more recently described optimized membrane-anchored fusion inhibitor M87o (Egelhofer et al., J. Virol. 78:568-575, 2004), strengthening the importance of this novel antiviral concept for gene therapy approaches.


2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (9) ◽  
pp. 4361-4376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Alexander ◽  
Emma Weiskopf ◽  
Thomas C. Greenough ◽  
Nathan C. Gaddis ◽  
Marcy R. Auerbach ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Factors accounting for long-term nonprogression may include infection with an attenuated strain of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), genetic polymorphisms in the host, and virus-specific immune responses. In this study, we examined eight individuals with nonprogressing or slowly progressing HIV-1 infection, none of whom were homozygous for host-specific polymorphisms (CCR5-Δ32, CCR2-64I, andSDF-1-3′A) which have been associated with slower disease progression. HIV-1 was recovered from seven of the eight, and recovered virus was used for sequencing the full-length HIV-1 genome; full-length HIV-1 genome sequences from the eighth were determined following amplification of viral sequences directly from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). Longitudinal studies of one individual with HIV-1 that consistently exhibited a slow/low growth phenotype revealed a single amino acid deletion in a conserved region of the gp41 transmembrane protein that was not seen in any of 131 envelope sequences in the Los Alamos HIV-1 sequence database. Genetic analysis also revealed that five of the eight individuals harbored HIV-1 with unusual 1- or 2-amino-acid deletions in the Gag sequence compared to subgroup B Gag consensus sequences. These deletions in Gag have either never been observed previously or are extremely rare in the database. Three individuals had deletions in Nef, and one had a 4-amino-acid insertion in Vpu. The unusual polymorphisms in Gag, Env, and Nef described here were also found in stored PBMC samples taken 3 to 11 years prior to, or in one case 4 years subsequent to, the time of sampling for the original sequencing. In all, seven of the eight individuals exhibited one or more unusual polymorphisms; a total of 13 unusual polymorphisms were documented in these seven individuals. These polymorphisms may have been present from the time of initial infection or may have appeared in response to immune surveillance or other selective pressures. Our results indicate that unusual, difficult-to-revert polymorphisms in HIV-1 can be found associated with slow progression or nonprogression in a majority of such cases.


2001 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 393-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert W. Buckheit ◽  
Karen Watson ◽  
Valerie Fliakas-Boltz ◽  
Julie Russell ◽  
Tracy L. Loftus ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We have identified and characterized a potent new nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitor (NNRTI) of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) that also is active against HIV-2 and which interferes with virus replication by two distinct mechanisms. 1-(3-Cyclopenten-1-yl)methyl-6-(3,5-dimethylbenzoyl)-5-ethyl-2,4-pyrimidinedione (SJ-3366) inhibits HIV-1 replication at concentrations of approximately 1 nM, with a therapeutic index of greater than 4 × 106. The efficacy and toxicity of SJ-3366 are consistent when evaluated with established or fresh human cells, and the compound is equipotent against all strains of HIV-1 evaluated, including syncytium-inducing, non-syncytium-inducing, monocyte/macrophage-tropic, and subtype virus strains. Distinct from other members of the pharmacologic class of NNRTIs, SJ-3366 inhibited laboratory and clinical strains of HIV-2 at a concentration of approximately 150 nM, yielding a therapeutic index of approximately 20,000. Like most NNRTIs, the compound was less active when challenged with HIV-1 strains possessing the Y181C, K103N, and Y188C amino acid changes in the RT and selected for a virus with a Y181C amino acid change in the RT after five tissue culture passages in the presence of the compound. In combination anti-HIV assays with nucleoside and nonnucleoside RT and protease inhibitors, additive interactions occurred with all compounds tested with the exception of dideoxyinosine, with which a synergistic interaction was found. Biochemically, SJ-3366 exhibited aKi value of 3.2 nM, with a mixed mechanism of inhibition against HIV-1 RT, but it did not inhibit HIV-2 RT. SJ-3366 also inhibited the entry of both HIV-1 and HIV-2 into target cells. On the basis of its therapeutic index and multiple mechanisms of anti-HIV action, SJ-3366 represents an exciting new compound for use in HIV-infected individuals.


2005 ◽  
Vol 79 (6) ◽  
pp. 3536-3543 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lia van der Hoek ◽  
Nicole Back ◽  
Maarten F. Jebbink ◽  
Anthony de Ronde ◽  
Margreet Bakker ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Resistance to antiretroviral drugs is generally conferred by specific amino acid substitutions, rather than insertions or deletions, in reverse transcriptase (RT) of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). The exception to these findings is the amino acid insertions found in the β3-β4 loop of the RT enzyme in response to treatment with nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors. This insert consists most commonly of two amino acids, but we describe in detail the evolution of a variant with an 8-amino-acid (aa) insert in a patient treated with zidovudine (ZDV) and 2′-3′-dideoxycytidine (ddC). The 24-nucleotide insert is a partial duplication of local sequences but also contains a sequence segment of unknown origin. Extensive sequence analysis of longitudinal patient samples indicated that the HIV-1 population prior to the start of therapy contained not the wild-type amino acid 215T in RT but a mixture with 215D and 215C. Treatment with ZDV and subsequent ZDV-ddC combination therapy resulted in the evolution of an HIV-1 variant with a typical ZDV resistance genotype (41L, 44D, 67N, 69D, 210W, 215Y), which was slowly replaced by the insert-containing variant (41L, 44D, insert at position 69, 70R, 210W, 215Y). The latter variant demonstrated increased resistance to a wide range of drugs, indicating that the 8-aa insert augments nucleoside analogue resistance. The gain in drug resistance of the insert variant came at the expense of a reduction in replication capacity when assayed in the absence of drugs. We compared these data with the resistance and replication properties of 133 insert-containing sequences of different individuals present in the ViroLogic database and found that the size and actual sequence of the insert at position 69 influence the level of resistance to nucleoside analogues.


2006 ◽  
Vol 50 (8) ◽  
pp. 2772-2781 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhijun Zhang ◽  
Michelle Walker ◽  
Wen Xu ◽  
Jae Hoon Shim ◽  
Jean-Luc Girardet ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Mutations in and around the catalytic site of the reverse transcriptase (RT) of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) are associated with resistance to nucleoside RT inhibitors (NRTIs), whereas changes in the hydrophobic pocket of the RT are attributed to nonnucleoside RT inhibitor (NNRTI) resistance. In this study, we report a novel series of nonnucleoside inhibitors of HIV-1, exemplified by VRX-329747 and VRX-413638, which inhibit both NNRTI- and NRTI-resistant HIV-1 isolates. Enzymatic studies indicated that these compounds are HIV-1 RT inhibitors. Surprisingly, however, following prolonged (6 months) tissue culture selection, this series of nonnucleoside inhibitors did not select NNRTI-resistant mutations in HIV-1 RT. Rather, four mutations (M41L, A62T/V, V118I, and M184V) known to cause resistance to NRTIs and two additional novel mutations (S68N and G112S) adjacent to the catalytic site of the enzyme were selected. Although the M184V mutation appears to be the initial mutation to establish resistance, this mutation alone confers only a two- to fourfold decrease in susceptibility to VRX-329747 and VRX-413638. At least two additional mutations must accumulate for significant resistance. Moreover, while VRX-329747-selected viruses are resistant to lamivudine and emtricitabine due to the M184V mutation, they remain susceptible to zidovudine, stavudine, dideoxyinosine, abacavir, tenofovir, and efavirenz. These results directly demonstrate that VRX-329747 and VRX-413638 are novel nonnucleoside inhibitors of HIV-1 RT with the potential to augment current therapies.


2006 ◽  
Vol 80 (16) ◽  
pp. 7939-7951 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anjali Joshi ◽  
Kunio Nagashima ◽  
Eric O. Freed

ABSTRACT The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) Gag precursor protein Pr55Gag drives the assembly and release of virus-like particles in the infected cell. The capsid (CA) domain of Gag plays an important role in these processes by promoting Gag-Gag interactions during assembly. The C-terminal domain (CTD) of CA contains two dileucine-like motifs (L189/L190 and I201/L202) implicated in regulating the localization of Gag to multivesicular bodies (MVBs). These dileucine-like motifs are located in the vicinity of the CTD dimer interface, a region of CA critical for Gag-Gag interactions during virus assembly and CA-CA interactions during core formation. To study the importance of the CA dileucine-like motifs in various aspects of HIV-1 replication, we introduced a series of mutations into these motifs in the context of a full-length, infectious HIV-1 molecular clone. CA mutants LL189,190AA and IL201,202AA were both severely impaired in virus particle production because of a variety of defects in the binding of Gag to membrane, Gag multimerization, and CA folding. In contrast to the model suggesting that the CA dileucine-like motifs regulate MVB targeting, the IL201,202AA mutation did not alter Gag localization to the MVB in either HeLa cells or macrophages. Revertants of single-amino-acid substitution mutants were obtained that no longer contained dileucine-like motifs but were nevertheless fully replication competent. The varied phenotypes of the mutants reported here provide novel insights into the interplay among Gag multimerization, membrane binding, virus assembly, CA dimerization, particle maturation, and virion infectivity.


1999 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gadi Borkow ◽  
Dominique Arion ◽  
Mark A. Wainberg ◽  
Michael A. Parniak

ABSTRACT N-[4-Chloro-3-(3-methyl-2-butenyloxy)phenyl]-2-methyl-3-furancarbothioamide (UC781) is an exceptionally potent nonnucleoside inhibitor of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) reverse transcriptase. We found that a 1:1 molar combination of UC781 and 3′-azido-3′-deoxythymidine (AZT) showed high-level synergy in inhibiting the replication of AZT-resistant virus, implying that UC781 can restore antiviral activity to AZT against AZT-resistant HIV-1. Neither the nevirapine plus AZT nor the 2′,5′-bis-O-(t-butyldimethylsilyl)-3′-spiro-5"-(4"-amino-1",2"-oxathiole-2",2"-dioxide plus AZT combinations had this effect. Studies with purified HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (from a wild type and an AZT-resistant mutant) showed that UC781 was a potent inhibitor of the pyrophosphorolytic cleavage of nucleotides from the 3′ end of the DNA polymerization primer, a process that we have proposed to be critical for the phenotypic expression of AZT resistance. Combinations of UC781 plus AZT did not act in synergy to inhibit the replication of either wild-type virus or UC781-resistant HIV-1. Importantly, the time to the development of viral resistance to combinations of UC781 plus AZT is significantly delayed compared to the time to the development of resistance to either drug alone.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document