Surface plasmon resonance study on HIV-1 integrase strand transfer activity

Understanding the molecular mechanism of HIV-1 integrase (IN) activity is critical to find functional inhibitors for an effective AIDS therapy. A robust, fast, and sensitive method for studying IN activity is required. In this work, an assay for real-time label-free monitoring of the IN activity based on surface plasmon resonance was developed. This assay enabled direct monitoring of the integration of a viral doubled-stranded (ds) DNA into the host genome. The strand transfer reaction was detected by using two different DNA targets: supercoiled plasmid (pUC 19) and short palindrome oligonucleotide. The effect of the length of the DNA target on the possibility to monitor the actual process of the strand transfer reaction is discussed. The surface density of integrated ds-DNA was determined. IN binding to the oligonucleotide complexes and model DNA triplexes in the presence of various divalent ions as metal cofactors was investigated as well. The assay developed can serve as an important analytical tool to search for potential strand transfer reaction inhibitors as well as for the study of compounds interfering with the binding of ds long terminal repeats–IN complexes with the host DNA. HIV-1 integrase strand transfer activity was monitored in real time using a multichannel surface plasmon resonance biosensor. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

A quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics study of the protein-ligand interaction for inhibitors of HIV-1 integrase

Human immunodeficiency virus type-1 integrase (HIV-1 IN) is an essential enzyme for effective viral replication. Diketo acids such as L-731,988 and S-1360 are potent and selective inhibitors of HIV-1 IN. In this study, we used molecular dynamics simulations, within the hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) approach, to determine the protein-ligand interaction energy between HIV-1 IN and L-731,988 and 10 of its derivatives and analogues. This hybrid methodology has the advantage that it includes quantum effects such as ligand polarisation upon binding, which can be very important when highly polarisable groups are embedded in anisotropic environments, as for example in metal-containing active sites. Furthermore, an energy decomposition analysis was performed to determine the contributions of individual residues to the enzyme-inhibitor interactions on averaged structures obtained from rather extensive conformational sampling. Analysis of the results reveals first that there is a correlation between protein-ligand interaction energy and experimental strand transfer into human chromosomes and secondly that the Asn-155, Lys-156 and Lys-159 residues and the Mg(2+) ion are crucial to anti-HIV IN activity. These results may explain the available experimental data.     

Building the Pharmacophore Model of HIV-1 Integrase Strand Transfer Inhibitors and Studying Their Inhibition Mechanism

The replication of HIV-1 requires the integration of its cyclic DNA into host DNA by HIV-1 integrase (IN), which includes two important reactions, 3'-processing and strand transfer, both catalyzed by HIV-1 IN. Disrupting either of the reactions will fulfill the purpose of inhibiting the replication of HIV-1. In this paper, pharmacophore modeling and molecular docking are employed to investigate the inhibition mechanism of the HIV-1 IN strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs). Based on the results, we suggest that the inhibition mechanism of INSTIs involves the inhibitor chelating the cofactors Mg2+ and its forming hydrogen bonds with some crucial residues adjacent to the DDE active center.     

Identification of potential HIV-1 integrase strand transfer inhibitors: In silico virtual screening and QM/MM docking studies

HIV-1 integrase (IN) is a retroviral enzyme that catalyses integration of the reverse-transcribed viral DNA into the host genome, which is necessary for efficient viral replication. In this study, we have performed an in silico virtual screening for the identification of potential HIV-1 IN strand transfer (ST) inhibitors. Pharmacophore modelling and atom-based 3D-QSAR studies were carried out for a series of compounds belonging to 3-Hydroxypyrimidine-2,4-diones. Based on the ligand-based pharmacophore model, we obtained a five-point pharmacophore with two hydrogen bond acceptors (A), one hydrogen bond donor (D), one hydrophobic group (H) and one aromatic ring (R) as pharmacophoric features. The pharmacophore hypothesis AADHR was used as a 3D query in a sequential virtual screening study to filter small molecule databases Maybridge, ChemBridge and Asinex. Hits matching with pharmacophore hypothesis AADHR were retrieved and passed progressively through Lipinski’s rule of five filtering, molecular docking and hierarchical clustering. The five compounds with best hits with novel and diverse chemotypes were subjected to QM/MM docking, which showed improved docking accuracy. We further performed molecular dynamics simulation and found three compounds that form stable interactions with key residues. These compounds could be used as a leads for further drug development and rational design of HIV-1 IN inhibitors.     

HIV-1病毒DNA与整合酶结合后的构象变化

用分子动力学(MD)模拟方法优化了HIV-1病毒DNA与整合酶(IN)二聚体(IN2)复合物模型结构, 并分析了HIV-1病毒DNA结合IN2后的构象变化. 结果表明, 按照HIV-1病毒DNA与IN2结合能力的强度, 病毒DNA可分为五个区域: 非结合区、强结合区1、弱结合区、强结合区2和反应区, 并用结合自由能计算验证了该分区的合理性. 与未结合IN2的病毒DNA相比, 复合物模型中病毒DNA除了非结合区碱基外, 其它四个区域的碱基构象变化较大. 复合物模型中病毒DNA主链较大程度地偏离标准B型DNA以及结合部位的小沟变宽都是识别IN的结构基础. 模拟结果与实验数据吻合较好, 为基于HIV-1 IN的药物分子设计提供了一定的结构信息.     

Molecular mechanism of HIV-1 integrase-vDNA interactions and strand transfer inhibitor action: a molecular modeling perspective

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) integrase (IN) is an essential enzyme for splicing a viral DNA (vDNA) replica of its genome into host cell chromosomal DNA (hDNA) and has been recently recognized as a promising therapeutic target for developing anti-AIDS agents. The interaction between HIV-1 IN and vDNA plays an important role in the integration process of the virus. However, a detailed understanding about the mechanism of this interactions as well as the action of the anti-HIV drug raltegravir (RAL, approved by FDA in 2007) targeting HIV-1 IN in the inhibition of the vDNA strand transfer is still absent. In the present work, a molecular modeling study by combining homology modeling, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with molecular mechanics Poisson-Boltzmann surface area (MM-PBSA), and molecular mechanics Generalized-Born surface area (MM-GBSA) calculations was performed to investigate the molecular mechanism of HIV-1 IN-vDNA interactions and the inhibition action of vDNA strand transfer inhibitor (INSTI) RAL. The structural analysis showed that RAL did not influence the interaction between vDNA and HIV-1 IN, but rather targeted a special conformation of HIV-1 IN to compete with host DNA and block the function of HIV-1 IN by forcing the 3'-OH of the terminal A17 nucleotide away from the three catalytic residues (Asp64, Asp116, and Glu152) and two Mg(2+) ions. Thus, the obtained results could be helpful for understanding of the integration process of the HIV-1 virus and provide some new clues for the rational design and discovery of potential compounds that would specifically block HIV-1 virus replication.     

Three-dimensional Quantitative Structure-activity Relationship Models of HIV-1 Integrase Inhibitors of DKAs

As one of the three viral encoded enzymes of HIV-1 infection, HIV-1 integrase has become an attractive drug target for the treatment. Diketoacid compounds (DKAs) are one kind of potent and selective inhibitors of HIV-1 IN. In the present work, two three-dimensional QSAR techniques (CoMFA and CoMSIA) were employed to correlate the molecular structure with the activity of inhibiting the strand transfer for 147 DKAs. The all-oritation search (AOS) and all-placement search (APS) were used to optimize the CoMFA model. The diketo and keto-enol tautomers of DKAs were also used to establish the CoMFA models. The results indicated that the enol was the dominant conformation in the HIV-1 IN and DKAs complexes. It can provide a new method and reference to identify the bioactive conformation of drugs by using QSAR analysis. The best CoMSIA model, with five fields combined, implied that the hydrophobic field is very important as well as the steric and electrostatic fields. All models indicated favorable internal validation. A comparative analysis with the three models demonstrated that the CoMFA model seems to be more predictive. The contour maps could afford steric, electrostatic, hydrophobic and H-bond information about the interaction of ligand-receptor complex visually. The models would give some useful guidelines for designing novel and potent HIV-1 integrase inhibitors.     

金属离子对HIV-1整合酶与硫氮硫扎平抑制剂作用模式影响的分子模拟研究

HIV-1整合酶（IN）通过依赖金属离子的两步反应将病毒DNA整合入宿主细胞过程中。结合于HIV-1上的金属离子个数的变化直接影响整合酶与抑制剂之间的结合。本工作用同源模建方法搭建了每条单链核心区具有两个Mg2+ 的（2Mg-IN-Core）和具有一个Mg2+ 的HIV-1 IN二聚体核心区模型（1Mg-IN-Core）。分子对接分别得到它们与硫氮硫扎平类化合物能量较低的复合物结构,把对接结果进行了比较。研究发现：当整合酶中结合的Mg2+个数改变时,它与抑制剂的结合模式也会发生很大的变化;抑制剂能够特异的且稳定的与2Mg-IN-Core模型的活性位点结合;同时与ASP64和GLU152螯合的那个Mg2+离子对于硫氮硫扎平抑制剂与整合酶上的结合有很大的影响。2Mg-IN-Core模型与抑制剂的复合物平均结构进行了2000 ps的 分子动力学模拟,分析发现同时与ASP64及ASP116螯合的Mg2+与IN蛋白形成了四个稳定的螯合键;同时与ASP64及GLU152螯合的Mg2+可与IN结合、也可与抑制剂形成稳定的配位键,这个Mg2+对IN与硫氮硫扎平抑制剂之间的结合有较大影响。     

结构多样的HIV-1整合酶抑制剂:过去、现在和未来

HIV-1整合酶是逆转录病毒复制的必需酶,它催化病毒DNA与宿主染色体DNA的整合,而且在人类细胞中没有类似物,因此成为治疗艾滋病的富有吸引力和合理的靶标.最近十年,一大批HIV-1整合酶抑制剂被鉴定出来,其中一些化合物显示选择性的抑制HIV-1整合酶和阻断病毒复制的活性,而最有影响的两类抑制剂是含邻苯二酚的多羟基芳环化合物和最近报道的芳基β-二酮酸类化合物.全面综述了用于HIV-1整合酶抑制剂研究以发展抗HIV新药的不同种类的化合物,包括苯并咪唑类衍生物、核苷类、多肽、羟基取代的芳环化合物及二酮酸类化合物等,并阐述了这些化合物中对抑制活性重要的结构特征.同时也介绍了HIV-1整合酶的结构、功能以及HIV-1整合酶抑制剂的设计原理和作用机制.     

用分子对接方法研究HIV-1整合酶与病毒DNA的结合模式

用分子对接方法研究了HIV-1整合酶(Integrase, IN)二聚体与3’ 端加工(3’ Processing, 3’-P)前的8 bp及27 bp病毒DNA的相互作用, 并获得IN与27 bp病毒DNA的特异性结合模式. 模拟结果表明, IN有特异性DNA结合区和非特异性DNA结合区; IN二聚体B链的K14, R20, K156, K159, K160, K186, K188, R199和A链的K219, W243, K244, R262, R263是IN结合病毒DNA的关键残基; 并从结构上解释了能使IN发挥活性的病毒DNA的最小长度是15 bp. 通过分析结合能发现, IN与DNA稳定结合的主要因素是非极性相互作用, 而关键残基与病毒DNA相互识别主要依赖于极性相互作用. 模拟结果与实验数据较吻合.     

A New Class of Uracil–DNA Glycosylase Inhibitors Active against Human and Vaccinia Virus Enzyme

Uracil–DNA glycosylases are enzymes that excise uracil bases appearing in DNA as a result of cytosine deamination or accidental dUMP incorporation from the dUTP pool. The activity of Family 1 uracil–DNA glycosylase (UNG) activity limits the efficiency of antimetabolite drugs and is essential for virulence in some bacterial and viral infections. Thus, UNG is regarded as a promising target for antitumor, antiviral, antibacterial, and antiprotozoal drugs. Most UNG inhibitors presently developed are based on the uracil base linked to various substituents, yet new pharmacophores are wanted to target a wide range of UNGs. We have conducted virtual screening of a 1,027,767-ligand library and biochemically screened the best hits for the inhibitory activity against human and vaccinia virus UNG enzymes. Although even the best inhibitors had IC₅₀ ≥ 100 μM, they were highly enriched in a common fragment, tetrahydro-2,4,6-trioxopyrimidinylidene (PyO3). In silico, PyO3 preferably docked into the enzyme’s active site, and in kinetic experiments, the inhibition was better consistent with the competitive mechanism. The toxicity of two best inhibitors for human cells was independent of the presence of methotrexate, which is consistent with the hypothesis that dUMP in genomic DNA is less toxic for the cell than strand breaks arising from the massive removal of uracil. We conclude that PyO3 may be a novel pharmacophore with the potential for development into UNG-targeting agents.     

Homology model-guided 3D-QSAR studies of HIV-1 integrase inhibitors

In the present study, we report the exploration of binding modes of potent HIV-1 integrase (IN) inhibitors MK-0518 (raltegravir) and GS-9137 (elvitegravir) as well as chalcone and related amide IN inhibitors we recently synthesized and the development of 3D-QSAR models for integrase inhibition. Homology models of DNA-bound HIV-1 IN were constructed on the basis of the X-ray crystal structure of the foamy virus IN-DNA complex (PDB ID: 3L2T ) and used for docking. The binding modes of raltegravir and elvitegravir in our homology models are in accordance with those in the foamy virus structure revealing interactions important for inhibitor-IN binding. To gain further insights into the structural requirements for IN inhibition, three-dimensional quantitative structure activity relationship (3D-QSAR) studies were conducted using raltegravir, elvitegravir, and their analogs; our synthesized 3-keto salicylic acid IN inhibitor series; as well as other structurally related HIV-1 IN inhibitors. In the first part of the study with 103 compounds, atom-fit alignments, I and II, and docking-based alignment, III, were used to develop 3D-QSAR models 1, 2, and 3, respectively, each comprising comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) and comparative molecular similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA) 3D-QSARs. This initial analysis indicated that the docking-based (structure-based) model 3 performed better than the atom-fit (ligand-based) models 1 and 2, in terms of statistical significance and robustness. Thus, the docking-based alignment was then subsequently used with an expanded data set of 296 compounds for building a more comprehensive 3D-QSAR, model 4. Model 4 afforded good q2 values of 0.70 and 0.75 for CoMFA and CoMSIA 3D-QSARs, respectively, and showed good predictive performance on an external validation test set of 59 compounds with predictive r2 values up to 0.71. The HIV IN-DNA homology model of biological relevance and the comprehensive 3D-QSAR models developed in the present study provide insights and new predictive tools for structure-based design and optimization of IN inhibitors.     

Stability of HIV-1 integrase–ligand complexes: the role of coordinating bonds

It is known that the HIV-1 integrase (IN) strand transfer inhibitors include the chelating fragments forming the coordinating bonds with two Mg²⁺ ions placed in the IN active site. The subject of the article is the role of these coordination bonds on stability of ligand–IN complexes. For this purpose, a set of ligand–IN complexes was investigated theoretically and experimentally. The theoretical model is based on the quantum-chemistry calculations of coordinating bonds geometry and energy. Solvent effects were taking into account using the implicit water model and the two-stage calculation scheme developed previously. For the experimental part of our study a set of the ligands was synthesized, and their IC₅₀ values of IN inhibiting have been measured. It is shown that the main contribution to ligand–IN complexes stability is caused by the substitution of water molecules by the ligand in the first coordination sphere of two Mg²⁺ ions, and the change in the polarization energy of the bulk water. It is shown, that acid–base equilibrium and tautomeric forms of the ligands should be taken into account to improve the prediction ability of the theoretical estimations. All these factors are controlled by the chelating fragments of the ligands. It is demonstrated that our theoretical approach based on the consideration of the coordinating bonds allows to separate active ligands (inhibitors) from inactive ones.     

Studies towards the Design and Synthesis of Novel 1,5-Diaryl-1H-imidazole-4-carboxylic Acids and 1,5-Diaryl-1H-imidazole-4-carbohydrazides as Host LEDGF/p75 and HIV-1 Integrase Interaction Inhibitors

Two targeted sets of novel 1,5-diaryl-1H-imidazole-4-carboxylic acids 10 and carbohydrazides 11 were designed and synthesized from their corresponding ester intermediates 17, which were prepared via cycloaddition of ethyl isocyanoacetate 16 and diarylimidoyl chlorides 15. Evaluation of these new target scaffolds in the AlphaScreen^TM HIV-1 IN-LEDGF/p75 inhibition assay identified seventeen compounds exceeding the pre-defined 50% inhibitory threshold at 100 µM concentration. Further evaluation of these compounds in the HIV-1 IN strand transfer assay at 100 μM showed that none of the compounds (with the exception of 10a, 10l, and 11k, with marginal inhibitory percentages) were actively bound to the active site, indicating that they are selectively binding to the LEDGF/p75-binding pocket. In a cell-based HIV-1 antiviral assay, compounds 11a, 11b, 11g, and 11h exhibited moderate antiviral percentage inhibition of 33–45% with cytotoxicity (CC₅₀) values of >200 µM, 158.4 µM, >200 µM, and 50.4 µM, respectively. The antiviral inhibitory activity displayed by 11h was attributed to its toxicity. Upon further validation of their ability to induce multimerization in a Western blot gel assay, compounds 11a, 11b, and 11h appeared to increase higher-order forms of IN.     

Efficient 3D database screening for novel HIV-1 IN inhibitors

We describe the use of pharmacophore modeling as an efficient tool in the discovery of novel HIV-1 integrase (IN) inhibitors. A three-dimensional hypothetical model for the binding of diketo acid analogues to the enzyme was built by means of the Catalyst program. Using these models as a query for virtual screening, we found several compounds that contain the specified 3D patterns of chemical functions. Biological testing shows that our strategy was successful in searching for new structural leads as HIV-1 IN inhibitors.     

Novel virtual screening protocol based on the combined use of molecular modeling and electron-ion interaction potential techniques to design HIV-1 integrase inhibitors

HIV-1 integrase (IN) is an essential enzyme for viral replication and represents an intriguing target for the development of new drugs. Although a large number of compounds have been reported to inhibit IN in biochemical assays, no drug active against this enzyme has been approved by the FDA so far. In this study, we report, for the first time, the use of the electron-ion interaction potential (EIIP) technique in combination with molecular modeling approaches for the identification of new IN inhibitors. An innovative virtual screening approach, based on the determination of both short- and long-range interactions between interacting molecules, was employed with the aim of identifying molecules able to inhibit the binding of IN to viral DNA. Moreover, results from a database screening on the commercial Asinex Gold Collection led to the selection of several compounds. One of them showed a significant inhibitory potency toward IN in the overall integration assay. Biological investigations also showed, in agreement with modeling studies, that these compounds prevent recognition of DNA by IN in a fluorescence fluctuation assay, probably by interacting with the DNA binding domain of IN.     

A Three-dimensional Model of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Integration Complex

Summary While the general features of HIV-1 integrase function are understood, there is still uncertainty about the composition of the integration complex and how integrase interacts with viral and host DNA. We propose an improved model of the integration complex based on current experimental evidence including a comparison with the homologous Tn5 transposase containing bound DNA and an analysis of DNA binding sites using Goodford’s GRID. Our model comprises a pair of integrase dimers, two strands of DNA to represent the viral DNA ends and a strand of bent DNA representing the host chromosome. In our model, the terminal four base pairs of each of the viral DNA strands interact with the integrase dimer providing the active site, while bases one turn away interact with a flexible loop (residues 186–194) on the second integrase dimer. We propose that residues E152, Q148 and K156 are involved in the specific recognition of the conserved CA dinucleotide and that the active site mobile loop (residues 140–149) stabilises the integration complex by acting as a barrier to separate the two viral DNA ends. In addition, the residues responsible for DNA binding in our model show a high level of amino acid conservation.