Skip to main content
PMC home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1988 Jul;85(13):4686–4690. doi: 10.1073/pnas.85.13.4686

Active human immunodeficiency virus protease is required for viral infectivity.

N E Kohl 1, E A Emini 1, W A Schleif 1, L J Davis 1, J C Heimbach 1, R A Dixon 1, E M Scolnick 1, I S Sigal 1
PMCID: PMC280500  PMID: 3290901

Abstract

Retroviral proteins are synthesized as polyprotein precursors that undergo proteolytic cleavages to yield the mature viral proteins. The role of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) protease in the viral replication cycle was examined by use of a site-directed mutation in the protease gene. The HIV protease gene product was expressed in Escherichia coli and observed to cleave HIV gag p55 to gag p24 and gag p17 in vitro. Substitution of aspartic acid residue 25 (Asp-25) of this protein with an asparagine residue did not affect the expression of the protein, but it eliminated detectable in vitro proteolytic activity against HIV gag p55. A mutant HIV provirus was constructed that contained the Asn-25 mutation within the protease gene. SW480 human colon carcinoma cells transfected with the Asn-25 mutant proviral DNA produced virions that contained gag p55 but not gag p24, whereas virions from cells transfected with the wild-type DNA contained both gag p55 and gag p24. The mutant virions were not able to infect MT-4 lymphoid cells. In contrast, these cells were highly sensitive to infection by the wild-type virions. These results demonstrate that the HIV protease is an essential viral enzyme and, consequently, an attractive target for anti-HIV drugs.

Full text

PDF
4689

Images in this article

4688Image
on p.4688
4688Image
on p.4688
4689Image
on p.4689
4689Image
on p.4689
4689Image
on p.4689

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Adachi A., Gendelman H. E., Koenig S., Folks T., Willey R., Rabson A., Martin M. A. Production of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome-associated retrovirus in human and nonhuman cells transfected with an infectious molecular clone. J Virol. 1986 Aug;59(2):284–291. doi: 10.1128/jvi.59.2.284-291.1986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Arcement L. J., Karshin W. L., Naso R. B., Arlinghaus R. B. "gag" polyprotein precursors of Rauscher murine leukemia virus. Virology. 1977 Sep;81(2):284–297. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(77)90145-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Benn S., Rutledge R., Folks T., Gold J., Baker L., McCormick J., Feorino P., Piot P., Quinn T., Martin M. Genomic heterogeneity of AIDS retroviral isolates from North America and Zaire. Science. 1985 Nov 22;230(4728):949–951. doi: 10.1126/science.2997922. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Crawford S., Goff S. P. A deletion mutation in the 5' part of the pol gene of Moloney murine leukemia virus blocks proteolytic processing of the gag and pol polyproteins. J Virol. 1985 Mar;53(3):899–907. doi: 10.1128/jvi.53.3.899-907.1985. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Debouck C., Gorniak J. G., Strickler J. E., Meek T. D., Metcalf B. W., Rosenberg M. Human immunodeficiency virus protease expressed in Escherichia coli exhibits autoprocessing and specific maturation of the gag precursor. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1987 Dec;84(24):8903–8906. doi: 10.1073/pnas.84.24.8903. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Gendelman H. E., Theodore T. S., Willey R., McCoy J., Adachi A., Mervis R. J., Venkatesan S., Martin M. A. Molecular characterization of a polymerase mutant human immunodeficiency virus. Virology. 1987 Oct;160(2):323–329. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(87)90002-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Gibbs J. B., Sigal I. S., Poe M., Scolnick E. M. Intrinsic GTPase activity distinguishes normal and oncogenic ras p21 molecules. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Sep;81(18):5704–5708. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.18.5704. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Jacks T., Power M. D., Masiarz F. R., Luciw P. A., Barr P. J., Varmus H. E. Characterization of ribosomal frameshifting in HIV-1 gag-pol expression. Nature. 1988 Jan 21;331(6153):280–283. doi: 10.1038/331280a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Katoh I., Yoshinaka Y., Rein A., Shibuya M., Odaka T., Oroszlan S. Murine leukemia virus maturation: protease region required for conversion from "immature" to "mature" core form and for virus infectivity. Virology. 1985 Sep;145(2):280–292. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(85)90161-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Leibovitz A., Stinson J. C., McCombs W. B., 3rd, McCoy C. E., Mazur K. C., Mabry N. D. Classification of human colorectal adenocarcinoma cell lines. Cancer Res. 1976 Dec;36(12):4562–4569. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Muesing M. A., Smith D. H., Cabradilla C. D., Benton C. V., Lasky L. A., Capon D. J. Nucleic acid structure and expression of the human AIDS/lymphadenopathy retrovirus. Nature. 1985 Feb 7;313(6002):450–458. doi: 10.1038/313450a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Pearl L. H., Taylor W. R. A structural model for the retroviral proteases. Nature. 1987 Sep 24;329(6137):351–354. doi: 10.1038/329351a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Ratner L., Haseltine W., Patarca R., Livak K. J., Starcich B., Josephs S. F., Doran E. R., Rafalski J. A., Whitehorn E. A., Baumeister K. Complete nucleotide sequence of the AIDS virus, HTLV-III. Nature. 1985 Jan 24;313(6000):277–284. doi: 10.1038/313277a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Sauer R. T., Allen D. W., Niall H. D. Amino acid sequence of p15 from avian myeloblastosis virus complex. Biochemistry. 1981 Jun 23;20(13):3784–3791. doi: 10.1021/bi00516a018. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Van Zaane D., Dekker-Michielsen J. A., Bloemers H. P. Virus-specific precursor polypeptides in cells infected with Rauscher leukemia virus: synthesis, identification, and processing. Virology. 1976 Nov;75(1):113–129. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(76)90011-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Vogt V. M., Wight A., Eisenman R. In vitro cleavage of avian retrovirus gag proteins by viral protease p15. Virology. 1979 Oct 15;98(1):154–167. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(79)90534-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Wain-Hobson S., Sonigo P., Danos O., Cole S., Alizon M. Nucleotide sequence of the AIDS virus, LAV. Cell. 1985 Jan;40(1):9–17. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(85)90303-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Wigler M., Pellicer A., Silverstein S., Axel R., Urlaub G., Chasin L. DNA-mediated transfer of the adenine phosphoribosyltransferase locus into mammalian cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1979 Mar;76(3):1373–1376. doi: 10.1073/pnas.76.3.1373. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Yoshinaka Y., Katoh I., Copeland T. D., Oroszlan S. Murine leukemia virus protease is encoded by the gag-pol gene and is synthesized through suppression of an amber termination codon. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Mar;82(6):1618–1622. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.6.1618. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Yoshinaka Y., Katoh I., Copeland T. D., Oroszlan S. Translational readthrough of an amber termination codon during synthesis of feline leukemia virus protease. J Virol. 1985 Sep;55(3):870–873. doi: 10.1128/jvi.55.3.870-873.1985. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Yoshinaka Y., Katoh I., Copeland T. D., Smythers G. W., Oroszlan S. Bovine leukemia virus protease: purification, chemical analysis, and in vitro processing of gag precursor polyproteins. J Virol. 1986 Mar;57(3):826–832. doi: 10.1128/jvi.57.3.826-832.1986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES