Single-chained HIV-1 protease linked by a disulfide bridge

Adachi, Motoyasu; Arai, Shigeki; Matsumoto, Fumiko; Kuroki, Ryota; Hatanaka, Takaaki*; Ito, Yuji*; Hidaka, Koshi*; Tsuda, Yuko*; Kiso, Yoshiaki*

HIV protease is known as a drug target protein. To compare interactions between HIVPR and inhibitors, single-chained HIVPR linked by a disulfide bond was designed as N98C mutant. Both WT N98C and A17 N98C mutants were expressed as inclusion body and refolded by dilution method. The yield of the purified enzymes was similar to that of WT. We will report the results of interactions between inhibitors and WT N98C and A17 N98C mutants by physicochemical and crystal structure analyses.