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Identification of a novel HIV-1C protease from a microbial source

HIV-1 subtype C is currently the most prevalent in the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS cases in subSaharan Africa. Most clinical protease inhibitors (PIs) were designed against subtype B and are reported to have reduced activity against subtype C proteases. Our initial hypothesis was to create an Escherich...

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Main Author: Sonday, Zarinah
Other Authors: Blackburn, Jonathan
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Integrative Biomedical Sciences (IBMS) 2023
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access_status_str Open Access
author Sonday, Zarinah
author2 Blackburn, Jonathan
author_browse Blackburn, Jonathan
Sonday, Zarinah
author_facet Blackburn, Jonathan
Sonday, Zarinah
author_sort Sonday, Zarinah
collection Thesis
description HIV-1 subtype C is currently the most prevalent in the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS cases in subSaharan Africa. Most clinical protease inhibitors (PIs) were designed against subtype B and are reported to have reduced activity against subtype C proteases. Our initial hypothesis was to create an Escherichia coli based life-or-death selection system for the screening of potential PIs against HIV-1 subtype C protease (PR). This system was engineered by inserting an HIV PR cleavage sequence between the export signal peptide of the commonly used TEM-1 β-lactamase, which upon co-expression of the HIV PR in vivo, would cleave the modified β-lactamase thus preventing its translocation to the periplasmic space. This would result in the host cells' sensitivity to β-lactam antibiotics supplemented in the growth media. The presence of an inhibitor would restore resistance and therefore ‘life'. Despite validation of the E. coliscreening system using the Tobacco Etch Virus (TEV) protease, co-expression of HIV protease subtype C did not inhibit cell growth. Further investigations revealed PR C activity was inhibited by an endogenous E. coli protein. The inhibitor was isolated from E. coli crude cell lysates using ammonium sulphate precipitation, gel filtration and anion exchange chromatography fractionation. It was identified using peptide fingerprinting mass spectrometry (PMF), as alkyl hydroperoxide reductase C22 subunit (AhpC22). Mass-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionisation-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) analysis of the precursor pre-incubated with AhpC22 revealed reduced autocatalytic cleavage occurring at the N-terminus of PR C. Inhibition kinetics using a recombinant source of AhpC22 characterized the enzyme as a non-competitive inhibitor of PR C activity with an inhibition constant (Ki ) of 0.88 µM. We also describe a protocol to express, purify and refold the HIV-1C protease which is well known for aggregation into inclusion bodies.
format Thesis
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:52:03.494Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2023
publishDateRange 2023
publishDateSort 2023
publisher Department of Integrative Biomedical Sciences (IBMS)
publisherStr Department of Integrative Biomedical Sciences (IBMS)
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/38172 Identification of a novel HIV-1C protease from a microbial source Sonday, Zarinah Blackburn, Jonathan Integrative Biomedical Sciences HIV-1 subtype C is currently the most prevalent in the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS cases in subSaharan Africa. Most clinical protease inhibitors (PIs) were designed against subtype B and are reported to have reduced activity against subtype C proteases. Our initial hypothesis was to create an Escherichia coli based life-or-death selection system for the screening of potential PIs against HIV-1 subtype C protease (PR). This system was engineered by inserting an HIV PR cleavage sequence between the export signal peptide of the commonly used TEM-1 β-lactamase, which upon co-expression of the HIV PR in vivo, would cleave the modified β-lactamase thus preventing its translocation to the periplasmic space. This would result in the host cells' sensitivity to β-lactam antibiotics supplemented in the growth media. The presence of an inhibitor would restore resistance and therefore ‘life'. Despite validation of the E. coliscreening system using the Tobacco Etch Virus (TEV) protease, co-expression of HIV protease subtype C did not inhibit cell growth. Further investigations revealed PR C activity was inhibited by an endogenous E. coli protein. The inhibitor was isolated from E. coli crude cell lysates using ammonium sulphate precipitation, gel filtration and anion exchange chromatography fractionation. It was identified using peptide fingerprinting mass spectrometry (PMF), as alkyl hydroperoxide reductase C22 subunit (AhpC22). Mass-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionisation-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) analysis of the precursor pre-incubated with AhpC22 revealed reduced autocatalytic cleavage occurring at the N-terminus of PR C. Inhibition kinetics using a recombinant source of AhpC22 characterized the enzyme as a non-competitive inhibitor of PR C activity with an inhibition constant (Ki ) of 0.88 µM. We also describe a protocol to express, purify and refold the HIV-1C protease which is well known for aggregation into inclusion bodies. 2023-07-28T08:48:43Z 2023-07-28T08:48:43Z 2023 2023-07-28T08:48:22Z Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/38172 eng application/pdf Department of Integrative Biomedical Sciences (IBMS) Faculty of Health Sciences
spellingShingle Integrative Biomedical Sciences
Sonday, Zarinah
Identification of a novel HIV-1C protease from a microbial source
thesis_degree_str Doctoral
title Identification of a novel HIV-1C protease from a microbial source
title_full Identification of a novel HIV-1C protease from a microbial source
title_fullStr Identification of a novel HIV-1C protease from a microbial source
title_full_unstemmed Identification of a novel HIV-1C protease from a microbial source
title_short Identification of a novel HIV-1C protease from a microbial source
title_sort identification of a novel hiv 1c protease from a microbial source
topic Integrative Biomedical Sciences
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/38172
work_keys_str_mv AT sondayzarinah identificationofanovelhiv1cproteasefromamicrobialsource