Discovery of nonnucleoside inhibitors of polymerase from infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV).

INTRODUCTION: Infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV) causes serious losses in several fish species of commercial interest. IPNV is a non-enveloped double-stranded RNA virus with a genome consisting of two segments A and B. Segment B codes for the VP1 protein, a non-canonical RNA-dependent RNA polymerase that can be found both in its free form and linked to the end of genomic RNA, an essential enzyme for IPNV replication. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We take advantage of the knowledge over the allosteric binding site described on the surface of the thumb domain of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) polymerase to design new non-nucleoside inhibitors against the IPNV VP1 polymerase. RESULTS: Molecular docking techniques have been used to screen a chemical library of 23,760 compounds over a defined cavity in the surface of the thumb domain. Additional ADMET (absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity) filter criteria has been applied. CONCLUSION: We select two sets of 9 and 50 inhibitor candidates against the polymerases of HCV and IPNV, respectively. Two non-toxic compounds have been tested in vitro with antiviral capacity against IPNV Sp and LWVRT60 strains in the low µM range with different activity depending on the IPNV strain used.

The N-terminus of the RNA polymerase from infectious pancreatic necrosis virus is the determinant of genome attachment.

The RNA-dependent RNA polymerase VP1 of infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV) is a single polypeptide responsible for both viral RNA transcription and genome replication. Sequence analysis identifies IPNV VP1 as having an unusual active site topology. We have purified, crystallized and solved the structure of IPNV VP1 to 2.3 Å resolution in its apo form and at 2.2 Å resolution bound to the catalytically-activating metal magnesium. We find that recombinantly-expressed VP1 is highly active for RNA transcription and replication, yielding both free and polymerase-attached RNA products. IPNV VP1 also possesses terminal (deoxy)nucleotide transferase, RNA-dependent DNA polymerase (reverse transcriptase) and template-independent self-guanylylation activity. The N-terminus of VP1 interacts with the active-site cleft and we show that the N-terminal serine residue is required for formation of covalent RNA:polymerase complexes, providing a mechanism for the genesis of viral genome:polymerase complexes observed in vivo.

Comparison of the RNA polymerase genes of marine birnavirus strains and other birnaviruses.

The cDNA nucleotide sequence of the genome segment B encoding the VP1 protein, the putative RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), was determined for 5 marine birnavirus (MABV) strains from different host or geographic origins and 1 infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV) strain AM-98. Segment B of the IPNV AM-98 strain and 4 MABV strains, Y-6, YT-01A, H1 and NC1, contained a 2535 bp ORF, which encoded a protein of 845 amino acid residues with a predicted MW of 94.4 kDa. Only the MABV AY-98 RdRp had 1 amino acid shorter RdRp. Pairwise comparisons were made among our data and 4 other known IPNV sequences. The nucleotide sequences of the 5 MABV strains were very similar each other, with identities of 98.3-99.7%. The highest divergence of the nucleotide level was between MABV strains and IPNV SP strain (serotype A2), with 20.4-20.8% divergences in the coding region, which gave 10.1-11.3% divergence in the amino acid level. The aquabirnavirus RdRp was noticeably conserved in amino acid sequences. Though the identities of the nucleotide sequences of encoding region were 85.1-85.9% between MABV strains and IPNV serotype A1 strains, they shared as high as 95.1-95.9% identities in amino acid level. A phylogenetic tree was constructed based on the amino acid sequences of the RdRp gene from different birnaviruses including avibirnavirus and entomobirnavirus. Ten aquabirnavirus strains were clustered into 3 Genogroups. The Genogroup I consisted of four IPNV A1 serotype strains. All MABV strains were clustered into Genogroup II. Only IPNV SP strain was clustered into an independent Genogroup III.

Active residues and viral substrate cleavage sites of the protease of the birnavirus infectious pancreatic necrosis virus.

The polyprotein of infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV), a birnavirus, is processed by the viral protease VP4 (also named NS) to generate three polypeptides: pVP2, VP4, and VP3. Site-directed mutagenesis at 42 positions of the IPNV VP4 protein was performed to determine the active site and the important residues for the protease activity. Two residues (serine 633 and lysine 674) were critical for cleavage activity at both the pVP2-VP4 and the VP4-VP3 junctions. Wild-type activity at the pVP2-VP4 junction and a partial block (with an alteration of the cleavage specificity) at the VP4-VP3 junction were observed when replacement occurred at histidines 547 and 679. A similar observation was made when aspartic acid 693 was replaced by leucine, but wild-type activity and specificity were found when substituted by glutamine or asparagine. Sequence comparison between IPNV and two birnavirus (infectious bursal disease virus and Drosophila X virus) VP4s revealed that serine 633 and lysine 674 are conserved in these viruses, in contrast to histidines 547 and 679. The importance of serine 633 and lysine 674 is reminiscent of the protease active site of bacterial leader peptidases and their mitochondrial homologs and of the bacterial LexA-like proteases. Self-cleavage sites of IPNV VP4 were determined at the pVP2-VP4 and VP4-VP3 junctions by N-terminal sequencing and mutagenesis. Two alternative cleavage sites were also identified in the carboxyl domain of pVP2 by cumulative mutagenesis. The results suggest that VP4 cleaves the (Ser/Thr)-X-Ala / (Ser/Ala)-Gly motif, a target sequence with similarities to bacterial leader peptidases and herpesvirus protease cleavage sites.

Generation of infectious pancreatic necrosis virus from cloned cDNA.

We developed a reverse genetics system for infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV), a prototype virus of the Birnaviridae family, with the use of plus-stranded RNA transcripts derived from cloned cDNA. Full-length cDNA clones of the IPNV genome that contained the entire coding and noncoding regions of RNA segments A and B were constructed. Segment A encodes a 106-kDa precursor protein which is cleaved to yield mature VP2, nonstructural protease, and VP3 proteins, whereas segment B encodes the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase VP1. Plus-sense RNA transcripts of both segments were prepared by in vitro transcription of linearized plasmids with T7 RNA polymerase. Transfection of chinook salmon embryo (CHSE) cells with combined transcripts of segments A and B generated infectious IPNV particles 10 days posttransfection. Furthermore, a transfectant virus containing a genetically tagged sequence was generated to confirm the feasibility of this system. The presence and specificity of the recovered virus were ascertained by immunofluorescence staining of infected CHSE cells with rabbit anti-IPNV serum and by nucleotide sequence analysis. In addition, 3'-terminal sequence analysis of RNA from the recovered virus showed that extraneous nucleotides synthesized at the 3' end during in vitro transcription were precisely trimmed or excluded during replication, and hence these were not incorporated into the genome. An attempt was made to determine if RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of IPNV and infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV), another birnavirus, can support virus rescue in heterologous combinations. Thus, CHSE cells were transfected with transcripts derived from IPNV segment A and IBDV segment B and Vero cells were transfected with transcripts derived from IBDV segment A and IPNV segment B. In either case, no infectious IPNV or IBDV particles were generated even after a third passage in cell culture, suggesting that viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase is species specific. However, the reverse genetics system for IPNV that we developed will greatly facilitate studies of viral replication and pathogenesis and the design of a new generation of live attenuated vaccines.