Pharmacology of HIV Viral DNA & Retroviral Integrases

为了进一步扩大抗逆转录病毒药物开发的靶点，我们正在利用重组酶和与前病毒末端(LTR‘s)相对应的短寡核苷酸，在体外试验中研究HIV-1整合酶抑制剂。整合酶是开发抑制剂的基本靶点，因为它对病毒复制是必不可少的。它是由病毒基因组编码的，没有细胞上的等价物。我们实验室开创了这一研究领域，并报道了多种抑制剂家族。我们已经就这一主题写了几篇评论；最近一篇评论将于2004年初发表。今年，第一类HIV-1整合酶抑制剂已进入临床试验。我们正在与特伦斯·伯克博士(药物化学实验室，CCR，NCI)和Vinay Pathak博士(抗病毒耐药性计划，CCR，NCI)合作研究这些二酮基酸(DKA)衍生物。我们阐明了这类新化合物的构效关系，发现DKA区分了野生型和突变型HIV-1整合酶，以及整合酶的两个金属辅因子镁和锰。我们的目标是阐明酶-脱氧核糖核酸复合体中的药物结合部位(S)，并发现具有更大治疗指数和/或新结构基序的药物。我们发现二酮酸叠氮衍生物是一种有效的、选择性的抗整合酶抑制剂，并且具有抗病毒作用。叠氮基团对酶催化部位的二价金属具有络合作用。这些衍生品的专利申请已经提交。我们还在研究通过与前病毒DNA末端结合来阻止整合的新型抑制剂，以及小肽和核苷酸抑制剂。这些多肽抑制剂也是抗病毒的，并已获得专利。我们还利用酶-DNA交联法研究整合酶与其DNA底物之间的分子相互作用，以模拟药物-酶-DNA相互作用。一项用苯并[a]芘二醇环氧化物DG-N_2加合物进行微小沟槽扫描的研究发表在《生物化学杂志》上。我们最近发现了病毒DNA碱基和酶之间的一种新的相互作用。

In an effort to further extend the number of targets for development of anti-retroviral agents, we are studying HIV-1 integrase inhibitors using in vitro assays using recombinant enzyme and short oligonucleotides corresponding to the proviral ends (LTR's). Integrase is a rationale target for inhibitor development because it is essential for viral replication. It is encoded by the viral genome and does not have a cellular equivalent. Our laboratory has pioneered this research field and reported various families of inhibitors. We have written several reviews on this topic; the most recent will be published in early 2004. This year, the first class of HIV-1 integrase inhibitors has been introduced in clinical trials. We are investigating these diketo acid (DKA) derivatives in collaboration with Dr. Terrence Burke (Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry, CCR, NCI) and Dr. Vinay Pathak (Antiviral Drug Resistance Program, CCR, NCI). We have elucidated the structure-activity relationship for this new type of compounds, and found that DKAs discriminate between wild-type and mutant HIV-1 integrase and between magnesium and manganese, the two metal cofactors for integrase. Our goal is to elucidate the drug binding site(s) in the enzyme-DNA complex, and to discover agents with a greater therapeutic index and/or novel structural motifs. We discovered that azido derivatives of diketo acids are potent and selective anti-integrase inhibitors, and are antiviral. The azido group can chelate the divalent metal in the enzyme catalytic site. A patent application has been filed for these derivatives. We are also studying novel types of inhibitors that can prevent integration by binding to the proviral DNA ends as well as small peptide and nucleotide inhibitors. The peptide inhibitors are also antiviral and have been patented. We are also studying the molecular interactions between integrase and its DNA substrate using enzyme-DNA crosslinking assays in order to model drug-enzyme-DNA interactions. A study using minor groove scanning with benzo[a]pyrene diol epoxide dG-N2 adduct is in press in The Journal of Biological Chemistry. We recently found a novel interaction between one of the viral DNA bases and the enzyme.