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Abstract:
After 30 years of research, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is still
considered a pandemic and has no cure. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV),
which causes the disease, depends on the cellular protein machinery to
replicate in the host cells. It has been suggested by different studies to
employ mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), enzyme active in cell
signalling, among other proteins. For its target recognition, MAPKs use a site
on their surface separate from their active site, which recognises and docks
with short linear motifs. This is a promising lead for targeting with drugs to
inhibit HIV replication.
In this work the presence of such motifs was investigated in HIV proteins.
Identified motifs were evaluated statistically. Afterwords selected candidates
were modelled in complex with MAPK and docked. Additionally, the conservation
of such motifs in HIV protein sequences was analysed to gain insight into
evolution of MAPK docking motifs in HIV.
