title: Altered gag polyprotein cleavage specificity of feline immunodeficiency virus/human immunodeficiency virus mutant proteases as demonstrated in a cell-based expression system.
abstract: We have used feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) protease (PR) as a mutational system to study the molecular basis of substrate-inhibitor specificity for lentivirus PRs, with a focus on human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) PR. Our previous mutagenesis studies demonstrated that discrete substitutions in the active site of FIV PR with structurally equivalent residues of HIV-1 PR dramatically altered the specificity of the mutant PRs in in vitro analyses. Here, we have expanded these studies to analyze the specificity changes in each mutant FIV PR expressed in the context of the natural Gag-Pol polyprotein ex vivo. Expression mutants were prepared in which 4 to 12 HIV-1-equivalent substitutions were made in FIV PR, and cleavage of each Gag-Pol polyprotein was then assessed in pseudovirions from transduced cells. The findings demonstrated that, as with in vitro analyses, inhibitor specificities of the mutants showed increased HIV-1 PR character when analyzed against the natural substrate. In addition, all of the mutant PRs still processed the FIV polyprotein but the apparent order of processing was altered relative to that observed with wild-type FIV PR. Given the importance of the order in which Gag-Pol is processed, these findings likely explain the failure to produce infectious FIVs bearing these mutations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 N. Torrey Pines Road, MB14, La Jolla, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Ying-Chuan
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Ashraf
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brik
authors.forename: Aymeric
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Parseval
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tam
authors.forename: Bruce E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Torbett
authors.forename: Chi-Huey
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Elder
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D019943:Amino Acid Substitution; D000818:Animals; D016282:Aspartic Acid Endopeptidases / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002415:Cats; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D015195:Drug Design; D015683:Gene Products, gag / Q000378:metabolism*; D016333:HIV Protease / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D017320:HIV Protease Inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000494:pharmacology; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000201:enzymology; D006801:Humans; D016089:Immunodeficiency Virus, Feline / Q000201:enzymology; D020128:Inhibitory Concentration 50; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016296:Mutagenesis; D009154:Mutation; D011487:Protein Conformation; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D015683:Gene Products, gag; D017320:HIV Protease Inhibitors; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D016282:Aspartic Acid Endopeptidases; C095555:FIV protease; D016333:HIV Protease