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Updated: Jul 21, 2026

Rapid Screening of HIV Reverse Transcriptase and Integrase Inhibitors
Published on: April 10, 2014
A soluble active mutant of HIV-1 integrase: involvement of both the core and carboxyl-terminal domains in
T M Jenkins1, A Engelman, R Ghirlando
1Laboratory of Molecular Biology, NIDDK, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-0560, USA.
Abstract:
Structural studies of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) integrase have been impeded by the low solubility of the protein. By systematic replacement of hydrophobic residues, we previously identified a single amino acid change (F185K) that dramatically improved the solubility of the catalytic domain of HIV-1 integrase and enabled the structure to be determined by x-ray crystallography. We have introduced the same mutation into full-length HIV-1 integrase. The resulting recombinant protein is soluble and fully active in vitro, whereas, HIV-1 carrying the mutation is replication-defective due to improper virus assembly. Analysis of the recombinant protein by gel filtration and sedimentation equilibrium demonstrate a dimer-tetramer self-association. We find that the regions involved in multimerization map to both the catalytic core and carboxyl-terminal domains. The dramatically improved solubility of this protein make it a good candidate for structural studies.
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