mRNA capping by Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus nsP1: Functional characterization and implication for antiviral research (original) (raw)
Related papers
2019
Alphaviruses such as the Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) are important human emerging pathogens transmitted by mosquitoes. They possess a unique viral mRNA capping mechanism catalyzed by the viral non-structural protein nsP1, which is essential for virus replication. The alphaviruses capping starts by the methylation of a GTP molecule by the N7-guanine methyltransferase (MTase) activity; nsP1 then forms a covalent link with m7GMP releasing pyrophosphate (GT reaction) and the m7GMP is next transferred onto the 5'-diphosphate end of the viral mRNA to form a cap-0 structure. The cap-0 structure decreases the detection of foreign viral RNAs, prevents RNA degradation by cellular exonucleases, and promotes viral RNA translation into proteins. Additionally, reverse-genetic studies have demonstrated that viruses mutated in nsP1 catalytic residues are both impaired towards replication and attenuated. The nsP1 protein is thus considered an attractive antiviral target for drug discovery. We have previously demonstrated that the guanylylation of VEEV nsP1 can be monitored by Western blot analysis using an antibody recognizing the cap structure. In this study, we developed a high throughput ELISA screening assay to monitor the GT reaction through m7GMP-nsP1 adduct quantitation. This assay was validated using known nsP1 inhibitors before screening 1220 approved compounds. 18 compounds inhibiting the nsP1 guanylylation were identified, and their IC50 determined. Compounds from two series were further characterized and shown to inhibit the nsP1 MTase activity. Conversely, these compounds barely inhibited a cellular MTase demonstrating their specificity towards nsP1. Analogues search and SAR were also initiated to identify the active pharmacophore features. Altogether the results show that this HT enzyme-based assay is a convenient way to select potent and specific hit compounds targeting the viral mRNA capping of Alphaviruses.
Journal of General Virology, 2010
The flavivirus RNA genome contains a conserved cap-1 structure, 7Me GpppA 29OMe G, at the 59 end. Two mRNA cap methyltransferase (MTase) activities involved in the formation of the cap, the (guanine-N7)-and the (nucleoside-29O)-MTases (29O-MTase), reside in a single domain of nonstructural protein NS5 (NS5MTase). This study reports on the biochemical characterization of the 29O-MTase activity of NS5MTase of dengue virus (NS5MTase DV ) using purified, short, capped RNA substrates ( 7Me GpppAC n or GpppAC n ). NS5MTase DV methylated both types of substrate exclusively at the 29O position. The efficiency of 29O-methylation did not depend on the methylation of the N7 position. Using 7Me GpppAC n and GpppAC n substrates of increasing chain lengths, it was found that both NS5MTase DV 29O activity and substrate binding increased before reaching a plateau at n55. Thus, the cap and 6 nt might define the interface providing efficient binding of enzyme and substrate. K m values for 7Me GpppAC 5 and the co-substrate S-adenosyl-Lmethionine (AdoMet) were determined (0.39 and 3.26 mM, respectively). As reported for other AdoMet-dependent RNA and DNA MTases, the 29O-MTase activity of NS5MTase DV showed a low turnover of 3.25¾10 "4 s "1 . Finally, an inhibition assay was set up and tested on GTP and AdoMet analogues as putative inhibitors of NS5MTase DV , which confirmed efficient inhibition by the reaction product S-adenosyl-homocysteine (IC 50 0.34 mM) and sinefungin (IC 50 0.63 mM), demonstrating that the assay is sufficiently sensitive to conduct inhibitor screening and characterization assays.
Biochemistry, 2016
The Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) nonstructural protein 2 (nsP2) cysteine protease (EC 3.4.22.-) is essential for viral replication and is involved in the cytopathic effects (CPE) of the virus. The VEEV nsP2 protease is a member of MEROPS Clan CN and characteristically contains a papain-like protease linked to an S-adenosyl-L-methionine-dependent RNA methyltransferase (SAM MTase) domain. The protease contains an alternative active site motif, 475NVCWAK480, which differs from papain's (CGS25CWAFS), and the enzyme lacks a transition state (TS) stabilizing residue homologous to Q19 in papain. To understand the roles of conserved residues in catalysis we determined crystal structures of the free enzyme and the first inhibitor bound alphaviral protease structure. The peptide-like E64d inhibitor was found to bind beneath a β-hairpin at the interface of the SAM MTase and protease domains. His-546 adopted a conformation that differed from that found in the free enzyme, eac...
Journal of Virology, 2007
The encephalitogenic New World alphaviruses, including Venezuelan (VEEV), eastern (EEEV), and western equine encephalitis viruses, constitute a continuing public health threat in the United States. They circulate in Central, South, and North America and have the ability to cause fatal disease in humans and in horses and other domestic animals. We recently demonstrated that these viruses have developed the ability to interfere with cellular transcription and use it as a means of downregulating a cellular antiviral response. The results of the present study suggest that the N-terminal, ∼35-amino-acid-long peptide of VEEV and EEEV capsid proteins plays the most critical role in the downregulation of cellular transcription and development of a cytopathic effect. The identified VEEV-specific peptide C VEE 33-68 includes two domains with distinct functions: the α-helix domain, helix I, which is critically involved in supporting the balance between the presence of the protein in the cytopl...
Virus Genes
Peste-des-petits-ruminants is a highly contagious and fatal disease of goats and sheep caused by non-segmented, negative strand RNA virus belonging to the Morbillivirus genus-Peste-des-petits-ruminants virus (PPRV) which is evolutionarily closely related to Rinderpest virus (RPV). The large protein 'L' of the members of this genus is a multifunctional catalytic protein, which transcribes and replicates the viral genomic RNA as well as possesses mRNA capping, methylation and polyadenylation activities; however, the detailed mechanism of mRNA capping by PPRV L protein has not been studied. We have found earlier that the L protein of RPV has RNA triphosphatase (RTPase), guanylyltransferase (GTase) and methyltransferase activities, and unlike vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), follows the conventional pathway of mRNA capping. In the present work, using a 5′-end labelled viral RNA as substrate, we demonstrate that PPRV L protein has RTPase activity when present in the ribonucleoprotein complex of purified virus as well as recombinant L-P complex expressed in insect cells. Further, a minimal domain in the C-terminal region (aa1640-1840) of the L protein has been expressed in E. coli and shown to exhibit RTPase activity. The RTPase activity of PPRV L protein is metal-dependent and functions with a divalent cation, either magnesium or manganese. In addition, RTPase associated nucleotide triphosphatase activity (NTPase) of PPRV L protein is also demonstrated. This work provides the first detailed study of RTPase activity and identifies the RTPase domain of PPRV L protein.
The Crystal Structure of the Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Alphavirus nsP2 Protease
Alphavirus replication and propagation is dependent on the protease activity of the viral nsP2 protein, which cleaves the nsP1234 polyprotein replication complex into functional components. Thus, nsP2 is an attractive target for drug discovery efforts to combat highly pathogenic alphaviruses. Unfortunately, antiviral development has been hampered by a lack of structural information for the nsP2 protease. Here, we report the crystal structure of the nsP2 protease (nsP2pro) from Venezuelan equine encephalitis alphavirus determined at 2.45 A° resolution. The protease structure consists of two distinct domains. The nsP2pro N-terminal domain contains the catalytic dyad cysteine and histidine residues organized in a protein fold that differs significantly from any known cysteine protease or protein folds. The nsP2pro C-terminal domain displays structural similarity to S-adenosyl-L-methionine- dependent RNA methyltransferases and provides essential elements that contribute to substrate recognition and may also regulate the structure of the substrate binding cleft.
Journal of Virology, 2010
Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) is a significant human and animal pathogen. The highlight of VEEV replication in vitro, in cells of vertebrate origin, is the rapid development of cytopathic effect (CPE), which is strongly dependent upon the expression of viral capsid protein. Besides being an integral part of virions, the latter protein is capable of (i) binding both the nuclear import and nuclear export receptors, (ii) accumulating in the nuclear pore complexes, (iii) inhibiting nucleocytoplasmic trafficking, and (iv) inhibiting transcription of cellular ribosomal and messenger RNAs. Using our knowledge of the mechanism of VEEV capsid protein function in these processes, we designed VEEV variants containing combinations of mutations in the capsid-coding sequences. These mutations made VEEV dramatically less cytopathic but had no effect on infectious virus production. In cell lines that have defects in type I interferon (IFN) signaling, the capsid mutants demonstrated very efficient persistent replication. In other cells, which have no defects in IFN production or signaling, the same mutants were capable of inducing a long-term antiviral state, downregulating virus replication to an almost undetectable level. However, ultimately, these cells also developed a persistent infection, characterized by continuous virus replication and beta IFN (IFN-) release. The results of this study demonstrate that the long-term cellular antiviral state is determined by the synergistic effects of type I IFN signaling and the antiviral reaction induced by replicating viral RNA and/or the expression of VEEV-specific proteins. The designed mutants represent an important model for studying the mechanisms of cell interference with VEEV replication and development of persistent infection.
Journal of Virology, 2008
Flaviviruses encode a single methyltransferase domain that sequentially catalyzes two methylations of the viral RNA cap, GpppA-RNA3m 7 GpppA-RNA3m 7 GpppAm-RNA, by using S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) as a methyl donor. Crystal structures of flavivirus methyltransferases exhibit distinct binding sites for SAM, GTP, and RNA molecules. Biochemical analysis of West Nile virus methyltransferase shows that the single SAMbinding site donates methyl groups to both N7 and 2-O positions of the viral RNA cap, the GTP-binding pocket functions only during the 2-O methylation, and two distinct sets of amino acids in the RNA-binding site are required for the N7 and 2-O methylations. These results demonstrate that flavivirus methyltransferase catalyzes two cap methylations through a substrate-repositioning mechanism. In this mechanism, guanine N7 of substrate GpppA-RNA is first positioned to SAM to generate m 7 GpppA-RNA, after which the m 7 G moiety is repositioned to the GTP-binding pocket to register the 2-OH of the adenosine with SAM, generating m 7 GpppAm-RNA. Because N7 cap methylation is essential for viral replication, inhibitors designed to block the pocket identified for the N7 cap methylation could be developed for flavivirus therapy.
A novel cell-based assay to measure activity of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus nsP2 protease
Virology, 2016
The encephalitic alphaviruses encode nsP2 protease (nsP2pro), which because of its vital role in virus replication, represents an attractive target for therapeutic intervention. To facilitate the discovery of nsP2 inhibitors we have developed a novel assay for quantitative measurement of nsP2pro activity in a cellbased format. The assay is based on a substrate fusion protein consisting of eGFP and Gaussia luciferase (Gluc) linked together by a small peptide containing a VEEV nsp2pro cleavage sequence. The expression of the substrate protein in cells along with recombinant nsP2pro results in cleavage of the substrate protein resulting in extracellular release of free Gluc. The Gluc activity in supernatants corresponds to intracellular nsP2pro-mediated substrate cleavage; thus, providing a simple and convenient way to quantify nsP2pro activity. Here, we demonstrate potential utility of the assay in identification of nsP2pro inhibitors, as well as in investigations related to molecular characterization of nsP2pro.