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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.