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In Vitro Analysis of Myd88-mediated Cellular Immune Response to West Nile Virus Mutant Strain Infection
Published on: November 27, 2014
Structure-based mutagenesis identifies important novel determinants of the NS2B cofactor of the West Nile virus
Ilian Radichev1, Sergey A Shiryaev1, Alexander E Aleshin1
1Inflammatory and Infectious Disease Center, Burnham Institute for Medical Research, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
Abstract:
West Nile virus (WNV) is an emerging mosquito-borne flavivirus that causes neuronal damage in the absence of treatment. In many flaviviruses, including WNV, the NS2B cofactor promotes the productive folding and the functional activity of the two-component NS3 (pro)teinase. Based on an analysis of the NS2B-NS3pro structure, we hypothesized that the G(22) residue and the negatively charged patch D(32)DD(34) of NS2B were part of an important configuration required for NS2B-NS3pro activity. Our experimental data confirmed that G(22) and D(32)DD(34) substitution for S and AAA, respectively, inactivated NS2B-NS3pro. An additional D42G mutant, which we designed as a control, had no dramatic effect on either the catalytic activity or self-proteolysis of NS2B-NS3pro. Because of the significant level of homology in flaviviral NS2B-NS3pro, our results will be useful for the development of specific allosteric inhibitors designed to interfere with the productive interactions of NS2B with NS3pro.
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