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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, May 2004, p. 1895-1899, Vol. 48, No. 5
0066-4804/04/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AAC.48.5.1895-1899.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Inhibition of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Tat-trans-Activation-Responsive Region Interaction by an Antiviral Quinolone Derivative
Sara Richter,1 Cristina Parolin,2 Barbara Gatto,1 Claudia Del Vecchio,2 Egidio Brocca-Cofano,3 Arnaldo Fravolini,4 Giorgio Palù,2* and Manlio Palumbo1
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences,1
Department of Histology, Microbiology and Medical Biotechnologies, Section of Microbiology and Virology, University of Padua, 35131 Padua,2
Department of Experimental and Diagnostic Medicine, Section of Microbiology, University of Ferrara, 44100 Ferrara,3
Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology, University of Perugia, 06123 Perugia, Italy4
Received 4 September 2003/
Returned for modification 6 November 2003/
Accepted 8 January 2004

ABSTRACT
WM5, a 6-aminoquinolone derivative, binds with high affinity
to the bulge of the
trans-activation-responsive region (TAR),
whereas it displays low binding affinity for the loop and stem
regions of TAR and for random RNA and DNA sequences. Furthermore,
WM5 disrupts the natural protein-nucleic acid complex with a
50% inhibitory concentration in the low micromolar range in
both in vitro and in vivo assays.

TEXT
Although combination of antiretroviral drugs (highly active
antiretroviral therapy) has changed the outcome of human immunodeficiency
virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection, leading to a dramatic reduction
in AIDS-related morbidity and mortality (
27), AIDS therapies
still face many constraints, including some inadequate therapeutic
responses and frequent intolerable drug toxicity. In addition,
a high rate of genetic variation of the HIV-1 genome, combined
with natural selection under therapy, gives rise to the development
and outgrowth of virus variants resistant to one or more of
the administered agents (
15). One way to circumvent this problem
would be the identification of new targets for drug therapy
characterized by being essential for viral replication and therefore
less prone to mutational changes.
Tat is one of the six HIV-1 regulatory proteins essential for viral replication; hence, inhibition of Tat function provides an attractive target for antiviral therapy. Tat is an RNA-binding protein that requires specific interactions with an RNA structure called the trans-activation-responsive region (TAR) to enhance the processivity of RNA polymerase II elongation complexes that initiate at the HIV long terminal repeat (LTR) region. TAR RNA is a 59-base stem-loop structure located at the 5' ends of all nascent HIV-1 transcripts (4); it contains a six-nucleotide loop and a three-nucleotide pyrimidine bulge that separate two helical stem regions (3).
Quinolones represent an important class of broad-spectrum antibacterials whose main structural feature is a 1,4 dihydro-4-oxo-quinolinyl moiety bearing an essential carbonyl group at position 3. Quinolone derivatives have been shown to inhibit HIV-1 replication in acutely and chronically infected cells (1, 2, 14, 22, 24-26, 36). Recently, our group developed a new class of 6-substituted quinolones and tested their antibacterial and anti-HIV-1 activities (6, 30). A 6-amino quinolone bearing a methyl substituent at the N-1 position and a 4-(2-pyridyl)-1-piperazine moiety at the C-7 position (WM5) was shown to inhibit HIV-1 replication (6). Recently, it was suggested to have a possible involvement in the trans-activation process, because WM5 is able to bind with high affinity to wild-type TAR RNA (28).
To define the specificity of WM5 (Fig. 1A) binding to TAR (Dharmacon), we constructed two mutant TAR structures in which all-annealed RNA segments replaced either the loop (loopless TAR) or both the loop and bulge regions (double-stranded TAR [dsTAR]), maintaining the overall wild-type TAR nucleotide sequence (Fig. 1B). We also used tRNA from calf thymus (Sigma) as a control for random RNA sequences containing bulges and hairpins; single-stranded DNA (ssDNA; Gentium) and dsDNA (Sigma) were used as controls for deoxyribonucleic sequences.
Based on the fluorescence emission displayed by the quinolone,
we used this technique to evaluate RNA-binding properties, as
previously described (
28). Under these conditions, the apparent
affinity of WM5 to this nucleic acid, expressed as the concentration
of TAR needed to form a complex with 50% of the drug (C
50),
corresponded to 0.2 µM. When the aminoquinolone was titrated
with loopless TAR, the affinity for the RNA was essentially
similar, with a minor decrease in the apparent binding affinity.
Finally, no variations in the emission spectra were observed
upon titration of WM5 with either dsTAR, tRNA, ssDNA, or dsDNA,
suggesting lack of interaction. The titration curves for the
three TAR structures are shown in Fig.
2A.
These data provide evidence that the bulge region of wild-type
TAR RNA is a specific target for the tested aminoquinolone.
Since the trinucleotide bulge is essential for high-affinity
and specific binding to the Tat protein (
10,
11), while the
loop region is required for in vitro
trans-activation but is
not involved in Tat binding (
3,
8,
10,
12,
31), we investigated
if WM5-specific binding to TAR could disrupt the interaction
between Tat and the RNA.
It has been shown by a number of groups that Tat-derived peptides, which contain the basic arginine-rich region of Tat, are able to form in vitro complexes with TAR RNA (5, 7-9, 35). To achieve specific RNA binding by a Tat fragment, we hence synthesized a Tat peptide (amino acids 38 to 72) that contains the RNA-binding domain and 11 amino acids from the core domain of the wild-type sequence of Tat protein (Fig. 1C). The synthesis was performed as described previously (33): calculated mass for Tat(38-72) C175H292N64O51 = 4,108.6; found 4,108.6 (M + H).
Tat(38-72)-TAR complex formation was assessed by electrophoresis mobility shift assay. Under these conditions, the affinity of Tat peptide for TAR at 50% of binding is 55 nM, which is in accordance with Kd values previously measured for this system (17, 18, 33; data not shown). We hence measured the ability of WM5 to disrupt Tat(38-72)-TAR interaction by titrating a constant amount of Tat-TAR complex (30% of complex on total RNA present in solution) with increasing amounts of the drug. We used ciprofloxacin (Fig. 1A) as a negative control quinolone. The results are shown in Fig. 2B. WM5 was able to inhibit Tat-TAR complex formation with an apparent Ki of 3.5 µM, while ciprofloxacin did not produce any inhibitory effect on the peptide-nucleic acid interaction. Furthermore, the fluorescence-based experiments excluded a WM5-Tat interaction (data not shown).
Next, the ability of WM5 to inhibit Tat-dependent trans-activation within cells was investigated. To this end, we utilized a HeLa cell line (HL3T1) containing a stably integrated chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) reporter gene under the control of the HIV-1 LTR. In these cells, expression of Tat in trans is able to trans-activate the HIV-1 LTR leading to CAT expression. HL3T1 cells were transfected with an effector plasmid expressing Tat (pRPneo-c-TAT/S) or its control (pRPneo-c). After transfection, the cells were incubated with various concentrations of the compounds for 48 h and assayed for the CAT activity. As shown in Fig. 3 A and B, WM5 significantly inhibited Tat-mediated trans-activation from HIV-1 LTR in a dose-dependent manner without affecting cell viability (concentration of compound required to reduce HL3T1 cell viability by 50% [CC50] >50 µM). Compared to control untreated cells, between 77 and 73% inhibition of Tat-dependent trans-activation was obtained in the presence of 10 and 5 µM WM5, respectively. To determine the specificity of the observed inhibition by WM5, the effect of transcription regulated by the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) promoter was examined. To this end, 293T cells (an adenovirus 5-transformed human embryonic kidney 293 cell line constitutively expressing the simian virus 40 large-T antigen) were transfected with the pCDNA3.1 CAT plasmid carrying the CAT gene under the control of the human cytomegalovirus promoter and assayed as described above. As shown in Fig. 3C and D, WM5 was unable to inhibit transcription in this system even at the highest concentration.
Since the trinucleotide bulge is essential for high-affinity
and specific binding of the Tat protein, a synthetic compound
that interacts with the bulge would compete for the formation
of a stable Tat-TAR complex. Different compounds have been reported
to disrupt Tat-TAR interactionin particular, backbone-modified
Tat analogues, including various peptoid-based structures (
19,
20,
23,
29), a ß-peptide (
13), a
D-amino acid-containing
peptide (
16), an oligocarbamate (
34), and an oligourea (
32).
The above compounds were designed with the aim of mimicking
the natural substrate, Tat; however, they usually carry the
burden of high molecular weights, cumbersome synthesis, nonfavorable
pharmacokinetic properties, and elevated degradation rates.
On the contrary, small organic molecules, such as quinolones,
are extremely versatile: around 10,000 quinolones were described
in the literature, and their relatively simple synthetic routes
and well known biochemical properties render these molecules
ideal pharmacophoric structures. The encouraging characteristics
of WM5 should be amenable to refinement in future studies with
the aim of deriving modified quinolone analogues that exhibit
more effective anti-HIV activity while remaining nontoxic for
the cells.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by AIDS grants from the Istituto Superiore
di Sanità (OAG/F19, Rome-AIDS Projects no. 40D.64 and
no. 30D.60), the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo,
Regione Veneto, MIUR, FIRB, CNR Target Project on Biotechnology,
and AIRC.

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Histology, Microbiology and Medical Biotechnologies, University of Padua, via A. Gabelli 63, 35121 Padua, Italy. Phone: 39-049-827-2350. Fax: 39-049-827-2355. E-mail:
giorgio.palu{at}unipd.it.


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Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, May 2004, p. 1895-1899, Vol. 48, No. 5
0066-4804/04/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/AAC.48.5.1895-1899.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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