Aptamers that interact with various HIV-1 proteins,such as reverse transcriptase,Rev,Tat protein,and nuclear capsule protein,have been prepared through SELEX (systematic evolution of ligands by ex-ponential enrichment) technique. However,there are few reports about the DNA or RNA aptamers that target HIV-1 integrase. In this investigation,we selected alternative RNA aptamers specific for the HIV-1 integrase by using a different binding buffer containing 10 mmol·L-1 MgCl2 and 100 mmol·L-1 KCl. Aptamer IN1,IN2,IN3 had similar and the highest Kd values from 145 to 239 nmol·L-1. Structural studies showed that they formed similar stem-loop structure. Deletion of any stem structure resulted in diminished affinity. In addition,structure probing study with antisense DNA indicated that the stem-loop structure in the random region was critical for integrase binding. Although aptamer IN1 failed to form G-quartet structure,it might directly interact with the DDE motif of integrase,which is the virus DNA-binding site,because G-quadruplex T40214 competitively inhibited the interaction between IN1 and integrase. Together,this study generated a novel RNA aptamer IN1,which could be useful in basic research and anti-HIV drug screening.
LIU YingChunZHANG YanYE GuoZhuYANG ZhenJunZHANG LiangRenZHANG LiHe
