J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 267, Issue 32, 22770-22778, Nov, 1992
The crystal structures at 2.2-A resolution of hydroxyethylene-based inhibitors bound to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 protease show that the inhibitors are present in two distinct orientations
KH Murthy, EL Winborne, MD Minnich, JS Culp and C Debouck
Department of Macro Molecular Sciences, SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania 19406.
As part of a structure-based drug design program directed against enzyme
targets in the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), we have determined the
three-dimensional structures of the HIV type 1 protease complexed with two
hydroxyethylene-based inhibitors. The inhibitors (SKF 107457 and SKF
108738) are hexapeptide substrate analogues with the scissile bond being
replaced by a hydroxyethylene isostere. The structures were determined
using x-ray diffraction data to 2.2 A measured at the Cornell High Energy
Synchrotron Source on hexagonal crystals of each of the complexes. The
structures have been extensively refined using a reciprocal space
least-squares method to conventional crystallographic R factors of 0.186
and 0.159, respectively. The protein structure differs from that in the
unliganded state of the enzyme and is most similar to that of the structure
of the other reported (Jaskolski, M., Tomasselli, A. G., Sawyer, T. K.,
Staples, D. G., Heinrikson, R. L., Schneider, J., Kent, S. B. H., and
Wlodawer, A. (1990) Biochemistry 29, 5889-5907) hydroxyethylene-based
inhibitor complex. Unlike in that structure, however, the inhibitors are
observed, in the present crystal structures, in two equally abundant
orientations that are a consequence of the homodimeric nature of the enzyme
coupled with the asymmetric structures of the inhibitors. Although the
differences between the two inhibitors used in the present study are
confined to the P1' site, the van der Waals interactions made by the
inhibitor atoms with the amino acid residues in the protein differ
throughout the structures of the inhibitors.