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

Weiwei Xue, Huanxiang Liu, Xiaojun Yao

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

36 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

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 Mg2+ 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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)527-536
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Computational Chemistry
Volume33
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Feb 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • HIV-1 integrase
  • free energy calculation
  • molecular dynamics simulation
  • protein-DNA interactions
  • raltegravir

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