Project description:BackgroundHIV protease inhibitor (PI) therapy results in the rapid selection of drug resistant viral variants harbouring one or two substitutions in the viral protease. To combat PI resistance development, two approaches have been developed. The first is to increase the level of PI in the plasma of the patient, and the second is to develop novel PI with high potency against the known PI-resistant HIV protease variants. Both approaches share the requirement for a considerable increase in the number of protease mutations to lead to clinical resistance, thereby increasing the genetic barrier. We investigated whether HIV could yet again find a way to become less susceptible to these novel inhibitors.Methods and findingsWe have performed in vitro selection experiments using a novel PI with an increased genetic barrier (RO033-4649) and demonstrated selection of three viruses 4- to 8-fold resistant to all PI compared to wild type. These PI-resistant viruses did not have a single substitution in the viral protease. Full genomic sequencing revealed the presence of NC/p1 cleavage site substitutions in the viral Gag polyprotein (K436E and/or I437T/V) in all three resistant viruses. These changes, when introduced in a reference strain, conferred PI resistance. The mechanism leading to PI resistance is enhancement of the processing efficiency of the altered substrate by wild-type protease. Analysis of genotypic and phenotypic resistance profiles of 28,000 clinical isolates demonstrated the presence of these NC/p1 cleavage site mutations in some clinical samples (codon 431 substitutions in 13%, codon 436 substitutions in 8%, and codon 437 substitutions in 10%). Moreover, these cleavage site substitutions were highly significantly associated with reduced susceptibility to PI in clinical isolates lacking primary protease mutations. Furthermore, we used data from a clinical trial (NARVAL, ANRS 088) to demonstrate that these NC/p1 cleavage site changes are associated with virological failure during PI therapy.ConclusionsHIV can use an alternative mechanism to become resistant to PI by changing the substrate instead of the protease. Further studies are required to determine to what extent cleavage site mutations may explain virological failure during PI therapy.
Project description:The reaction of HIV protease to inhibitor therapy is characterized by the emergence of complex mutational patterns which confer drug resistance. The response of HIV protease to drugs often involves both primary mutations that directly inhibit the action of the drug, and a host of accessory resistance mutations that may occur far from the active site but may contribute to restoring the fitness or stability of the enzyme. Here we develop a probabilistic approach based on connected information that allows us to study residue, pair level and higher-order correlations within the same framework.We apply our methodology to a database of approximately 13,000 sequences which have been annotated by the treatment history of the patients from which the samples were obtained. We show that including pair interactions is essential for agreement with the mutational data, since neglect of these interactions results in order-of-magnitude errors in the probabilities of the simultaneous occurence of many mutations. The magnitude of these pair correlations changes dramatically between sequences obtained from patients that were or were not exposed to drugs. Higher-order effects make a contribution of as much as 10% for residues taken three at a time, but increase to more than twice that for 10 to 15-residue groups. The sequence data is insufficient to determine the higher-order effects for larger groups. We find that higher-order interactions have a significant effect on the predicted frequencies of sequences with large numbers of mutations. While relatively rare, such sequences are more prevalent after multi-drug therapy. The relative importance of these higher-order interactions increases with the number of drugs the patient had been exposed to.Correlations are critical for the understanding of mutation patterns in HIV protease. Pair interactions have substantial qualitative effects, while higher-order interactions are individually smaller but may have a collective effect. Together they lead to correlations which could have an important impact on the dynamics of the evolution of cross-resistance, by allowing the virus to pass through otherwise unlikely mutational states. These findings also indicate that pairwise and possibly higher-order effects should be included in the models of protein evolution, instead of assuming that all residues mutate independently of one another.
Project description:Ritonavir-boosted atazanavir is an option for second-line therapy in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We analyzed publicly available HIV-1 protease sequences from previously PI-naïve patients with virological failure (VF) following treatment with atazanavir. Overall, 1497 patient sequences were identified, including 740 reported in 27 published studies and 757 from datasets assembled for this analysis. A total of 63% of patients received boosted atazanavir. A total of 38% had non-subtype B viruses. A total of 264 (18%) sequences had a PI drug-resistance mutation (DRM) defined as having a Stanford HIV Drug Resistance Database mutation penalty score. Among sequences with a DRM, nine major DRMs had a prevalence >5%: I50L (34%), M46I (33%), V82A (22%), L90M (19%), I54V (16%), N88S (10%), M46L (8%), V32I (6%), and I84V (6%). Common accessory DRMs were L33F (21%), Q58E (16%), K20T (14%), G73S (12%), L10F (10%), F53L (10%), K43T (9%), and L24I (6%). A novel nonpolymorphic mutation, L89T occurred in 8.4% of non-subtype B, but in only 0.4% of subtype B sequences. The 264 sequences included 3 (1.1%) interpreted as causing high-level, 14 (5.3%) as causing intermediate, and 27 (10.2%) as causing low-level darunavir resistance. Atazanavir selects for nine major and eight accessory DRMs, and one novel nonpolymorphic mutation occurring primarily in non-B sequences. Atazanavir-selected mutations confer low-levels of darunavir cross resistance. Clinical studies, however, are required to determine the optimal boosted PI to use for second-line and potentially later line therapy in LMICs.
Project description:Lopinavir (LPV) is a second generation HIV-1 protease inhibitor. Drug resistance has rapidly emerged against LPV since its US FDA approval on September 15, 2000. Mutations at residues 32I, L33F, 46I, 47A, I54V, V82A, I84V, and L90M render the protease drug resistant against LPV. We report the crystal structure of a clinical isolate multi-drug resistant (MDR) 769 HIV-1 protease (resistant mutations at residues 10, 36, 46, 54, 62, 63, 71, 82, 84, and 90) complexed with LPV and the in vitro enzymatic IC50 of LPV against MDR 769. The structural and functional studies demonstrate significant drug resistance of MDR 769 against LPV, arising from reduced interactions between LPV and the protease target.
Project description:BackgroundDrug resistance is a critical problem limiting effective antiviral therapy for HIV/AIDS. Computational techniques for predicting drug resistance profiles from genomic data can accelerate the appropriate choice of therapy. These techniques can also be used to identify protease mutants for experimental studies of resistance and thereby assist in the development of next-generation therapies. Few studies, however, have assessed the evolution of resistance from genotype-phenotype data.ResultsThe machine learning produced highly accurate and robust classification of resistance to HIV protease inhibitors. Genotype data were mapped to the enzyme structure and encoded using Delaunay triangulation. Estimates of evolutionary relationships, based on this encoding, and using Minimum Spanning Trees, showed clusters of mutations that closely resemble the wild type. These clusters appear to evolve uniquely to more resistant phenotypes.ConclusionsUsing the triangulation metric and spanning trees results in paths that are consistent with evolutionary theory. The majority of the paths show bifurcation, namely they switch once from non-resistant to resistant or from resistant to non-resistant. Paths that lose resistance almost uniformly have far lower levels of resistance than those which either gain resistance or are stable. This strongly suggests that selection for stability in the face of a rapid rate of mutation is as important as selection for resistance in retroviral systems.
Project description:BackgroundDrug resistance in HIV is the major problem limiting effective antiviral therapy. Computational techniques for predicting drug resistance profiles from genomic data can accelerate the appropriate choice of therapy. These techniques can also be used to select protease mutants for experimental studies of resistance and thereby assist in the development of next-generation therapies.ResultsThe machine learning produced highly accurate and robust classification of HIV protease resistance. Genotype data were mapped to the enzyme structure and encoded using Delaunay triangulation. Generative machine learning models trained on one inhibitor could classify resistance from other inhibitors with varying levels of accuracy. Generally, the accuracy was best when the inhibitors were chemically similar.ConclusionsRestricted Boltzmann Machines are an effective machine learning tool for classification of genomic and structural data. They can also be used to compare resistance profiles of different protease inhibitors.
Project description:The diversity of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) has given rise to multiple subtypes and recombinant strains. The majority of research into antiretroviral agents and drug resistance has been performed on subtype B viruses, yet non-subtype B strains are responsible for 90% of global infections. Although it seems that combination antiretroviral regimens are effective against all HIV-1 subtypes, there is emerging evidence of subtype differences in drug resistance, relevant to antiretroviral strategies in different parts of the world. For this purpose, extensive sampling of HIV genetic diversity, curation and analyses are required to inform antiretroviral strategies in different parts of the world.
Project description:Antiviral inhibitors of HIV-1 protease are a notable success of structure-based drug design and have dramatically improved AIDS therapy. Analysis of the structures and activities of drug resistant protease variants has revealed novel molecular mechanisms of drug resistance and guided the design of tight-binding inhibitors for resistant variants. The plethora of structures reveals distinct molecular mechanisms associated with resistance: mutations that alter the protease interactions with inhibitors or substrates; mutations that alter dimer stability; and distal mutations that transmit changes to the active site. These insights will inform the continuing design of novel antiviral inhibitors targeting resistant strains of HIV.
Project description:A series of HIV-1 protease mutants has been designed in an effort to analyze the contribution to drug resistance provided by natural polymorphisms as well as therapy-selective (active and non-active site) mutations in the HIV-1 CRF_01 A/E (AE) protease when compared to that of the subtype B (B) protease. Kinetic analysis of these variants using chromogenic substrates showed differences in substrate specificity between pretherapy B and AE proteases. Inhibition analysis with ritonavir, indinavir, nelfinavir, amprenavir, saquinavir, lopinavir, and atazanavir revealed that the natural polymorphisms found in A/E can influence inhibitor resistance. It was also apparent that a high level of resistance in the A/E protease, as with B protease, is due to it aquiring a combination of active site and non-active site mutations. Structural analysis of atazanavir bound to a pretherapy B protease showed that the ability of atazanavir to maintain its binding affinity for variants containing some resistance mutations is due to its unique interactions with flap residues. This structure also explains why the I50L and I84V mutations are important in decreasing the binding affinity of atazanavir.