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Journal of Virology, December 2006, p. 12095-12101, Vol. 80, No. 24
0022-538X/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.01626-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee 37232,1 Department of Surgery, SORF LaSalle Street Extension, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 277102
Received 29 July 2006/ Accepted 30 September 2006
The compound 3-O-(3',3'-dimethylsuccinyl)-betulinic acid (DSB) potently and specifically inhibits human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) replication by delaying the cleavage of the CA-SP1 junction in Gag, leading to impaired maturation of the viral core. In this study, we investigated HIV-1 resistance to DSB by analyzing HIV-1 mutants encoding a variety of individual amino acid substitutions in the CA-SP1 cleavage site. Three of the substitutions were lethal to HIV-1 replication owing to a deleterious effect on particle assembly. The remaining mutants exhibited a range of replication efficiencies; however, each mutant was capable of replicating in the presence of concentrations of DSB that effectively inhibited wild-type HIV-1. Mutations conferring resistance to DSB also led to impaired binding of the compound to immature HIV-1 virions and loss of DSB-mediated inhibition of cleavage of Gag. Surprisingly, two of the DSB-resistant mutants retained an intermediate ability to bind the compound, suggesting that binding of DSB to immature HIV-1 particles may not be sufficient for antiviral activity. Overall, our results indicate that Gag amino acids L363 and A364 are critical for inhibition of HIV-1 replication by DSB and suggest that these residues form key contacts with the drug in the context of the assembling HIV-1 particle. These results have implications for the design of and screening for novel inhibitors of HIV-1 maturation.
Published ahead of print on 11 October 2006.
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