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Effect of mimetic CDK9 inhibitors on HIV-1 activated transcription
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Effect of mimetic CDK9 inhibitors on HIV-1 activated transcription

Rachel Van Duyne, Irene Guendel, Elizabeth Jaworski, Gavin Sampey, Zachary Klase, Hao Chen, Chen Zeng, Dmytro Kovalskyy, Mahmoud H el Kouni, Benjamin Lepene, …
Journal of molecular biology, Vol.425(4), pp.812-829
02/22/2013
DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2012.12.005
PMCID: PMC3595178
PMID: 23247501

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Abstract

Potent antiretroviral therapy (ART) has transformed HIV-1 infection into a chronic manageable disease; however drug resistance remains a common problem that limits the effectiveness and clinical benefits of this type of treatment. The discovery of viral reservoirs in the body, in which HIV-1 may persist, has helped to explain why therapeutic eradication of HIV-1 has proved so difficult. In the current study we utilized a combination of structure based analysis of Cyclin/CDK complexes with our previously published Tat peptide derivatives. We modeled the Tat peptide inhibitors with CDKs and found a particular pocket which showed the most stable binding site (Cavity 1) using in silico analysis. Furthermore, we were able to find peptide mimetics that bound to similar regions using in silico searches of a chemical library, followed by cell based biological assays. Using these methods we obtained the first generation mimetic drugs and tested these compounds on HIV-1 LTR activated transcription. Using biological assays followed by similar in silico analysis to find a 2 nd generation drugs resembling the original mimetic, we found the new targets of Cavity 1 and Cavity 2 regions on CDK9. We examined the 2 nd generation mimetic against various viral isolates, and observed a generalized suppression of most HIV-1 isolates. Finally, the drug inhibited viral replication in humanized mouse models of Rag2 -/- γc -/- with no toxicity to the animals at tested concentrations. Our results suggest that it may be possible to model peptide inhibitors into available crystal structures and further find drug mimetics using in silico analysis.
CDK9 inhibitors ATP analog Cyclin T1 viral transactivator

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