|
|
Rous sarcoma virus replication blocks in mammalian cells
Koslová, Anna ; Hejnar, Jiří (advisor) ; Ruml, Tomáš (referee) ; Weber, Jan (referee)
One of the important tasks of virology and immunology is to explore the species- and cell-barriers preventing virus horizontal transmission and reveal the ways how viruses overcome these barriers and "adapt" to different species. This work is based on a well- established retroviral model - avian Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) and studies virus replication blocks in mammalian cells at both pre- and post-integration level. Interaction of the viral envelope glycoprotein (Env) with a specific cellular receptor mediates virus entry into cells. Although mammalian orthologues of specific chicken receptors do not support RSV entry, it was observed that some RSV strains are able to enter mammalian cells. Several RSV-transformed rodent cells lines were described and analysis of provirus H20- RSV in one these cells lines (hamster H-20 tumor cell line) showed multiple mutations including two crucial amino acid substitutions in different regions of Env. Substitutions D32G and L378S confer virus transmission to hamster, human and also chicken cells lacking the appropriate receptor. Altered conformation of H20-RSV Env is similar to a receptor-primed (activated) state of Env. This observation indicates that virus can circumvent the need of original cell receptor because of spontaneous Env activation caused by single...
|
|
|
Protease Inhibitors as a Research Tool: Design, Synthesis and Evaluation of HIV PR and GCPII Inhibitors
Schimer, Jiří ; Konvalinka, Jan (advisor) ; Obšil, Tomáš (referee) ; Ruml, Tomáš (referee)
This dissertation thesis focuses on creating tools for the analysis and potential therapeutic intervention in the biological processes regulated by proteolysis. I focus on two important proteolytic enzymes: HIV-1 protease, which is indispensable for the polyprotein processing of the nascent virus and thus for the development of infectious viral particle, and glutamate carboxypeptidase II, a tumor marker and a neuropeptidase from the prostate and central nervous system. Rational design of inhibitors of these therapeutically relevant enzymes serves two purposes: firstly, protease inhibitors were shown to be powerful drugs (HIV protease is in fact the example of successful drug development driven by structural biology). Secondly, and in the context of this thesis perhaps more importantly, inhibitors of medicinally relevant proteases might serve as tools for the elucidation of basic biological questions concerning regulation, timing and spatiotemporal control of such key processes as virus maturation or cancer development. The experimental work described in this thesis summarizes my results in both these areas. Human Immunodeficiency Virus Protease Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a causative agent of AIDS, has been estimated to kill close to 40 million people during the past four decades with 1.5...
|
|
|
Modulation of HIV-1 Protease Activity
Pokorná, Jana ; Konvalinka, Jan (advisor) ; Šedo, Aleksi (referee) ; Ruml, Tomáš (referee)
HIV-1 protease plays a crucial role in the late state of the life cycle of HIV virus when it cleaves the viral polyprotein precursors into the structural and functional proteins. If it is effectively inhibited, HIV particles remain immature and noninfectious. The application of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) including protease inhibitors can reduce plasma HIV-1 levels below the detection limit in adherent patients and thus dramatically change their life expectancy. The clinical utility of the first inhibitors was limited by severe side effects, low bioavailability, high pill burdens, and rapid development of viral resistance under the selection pressure of HIV antiretrovirals. To overcome these difficulties, second-generation inhibitors were developed. Despite an indisputable improvement they brought to antiretroviral therapy, the development of new highly active HIV-1 protease inhibitors with optimal pharmacokinetic properties, higher metabolic stability, little off-target activity, and particularly, more favorable resistance profiles is still of high importance. This thesis provides an overview of anti-HIV- drugs including development of substituted metallacarboranes, a new class of potent, unusual, nonpeptidic HIV protease inhibitors with therapeutic potential. Next, the impact of...
|
|
|
Improvement of retroviral vectors for efficient gene transfer
Šenigl, Filip ; Hejnar, Jiří (advisor) ; Šmahel, Michal (referee) ; Ruml, Tomáš (referee)
44 CONCLUSIONS Retroviral vectors are transcriptionally unstable in mammalian cells. The ASLV- derived vectors are the most affected by silencing. We modified the vector by insertion of the CpG island inner element (IE) into the vector LTR in three different positions in either sense or antisense orientation. Each vector variant exhibited a certain extent of stabilization. The vector with insertion of a tandem of two IEs between the enhancer and the promoter was the most stable and exhibited almost no silencing after four months of cultivation in rodent and human cells. The IE comprises two high-affinity Sp1 binding sites. The presence of Sp1 binding sites is important for the protective effect of IE, but at least a part of the entire anti-silencing capacity is maintained in IE with mutated Sp1 sites. We identified the Tvc receptor of ASLV. The tvc gene encodes a 488-amino-acid protein most closely related to mammalian butyrophilins, members of the immunoglobulin protein family. To confirm the identification of the Tvc receptor, we disrupted both tvc alleles in normally susceptible DT40 cells. The DT40 tvc-/- clone was resistant to the ASLV(C) infection. We identified the mutation that results in decreased susceptibility to infection by ASLV subgroups B and D and resistance to ASLV subgroup E of line M...
|
|
| |
|
| |
guest ::
