The action mechanisms of anti-HIV-1 compounds with pseudovirus system

Abstract:

In this study, a pseudovirus system was constructed to investigate the anti-HIV mechanisms of five natural compounds. Three plasmids containing backbone, gag-pol of HIV-1 and VSVG were transfected to 293T cells to produce pseudotyped HIV-1 virus. Real-time PCR assay was used to explore the targets of these compounds by testing the specific viral products in the early life cycle of HIV-1. With this system, the targets of four compounds have been initially identified. LC-1 and LC-2 could block the nuclear import of HIV-1preintegration complex (PIC) into the nucleus. LC-3 could inhibit viral DNA integration to host genome. LC-4 could inhibit the activities of reverse transcriptase. Compounds LC1 and LC2 showed different action target from the existing drugs. Further study has been carried to explore the new potential action mechanism. This study showed that the pseudovirus system we constructed can be used as an assay platform to screen anti-HIV drugs.