Epistatic interactions promote persistence of NS3-Q80K in HCV infection by compensating for protein folding instability.
hepatitis C virus
immune escape
protein evolution
protein folding
resistance mutation
serine protease (NS3-4A)
viral fitness
Journal
The Journal of biological chemistry
ISSN: 1083-351X
Titre abrégé: J Biol Chem
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 2985121R
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
09 2021
09 2021
Historique:
received:
11
05
2021
revised:
27
07
2021
accepted:
29
07
2021
pubmed:
3
8
2021
medline:
15
12
2021
entrez:
2
8
2021
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
The Q80K polymorphism in the NS3-4A protease of the hepatitis C virus is associated with treatment failure of direct-acting antiviral agents. This polymorphism is highly prevalent in genotype 1a infections and stably transmitted between hosts. Here, we investigated the underlying molecular mechanisms of evolutionarily conserved coevolving amino acids in NS3-Q80K and revealed potential implications of epistatic interactions in immune escape and variants persistence. Using purified protein, we characterized the impact of epistatic amino acid substitutions on the physicochemical properties and peptide cleavage kinetics of the NS3-Q80K protease. We found that Q80K destabilized the protease protein fold (p < 0.0001). Although NS3-Q80K showed reduced peptide substrate turnover (p < 0.0002), replicative fitness in an H77S.3 cell culture model of infection was not significantly inferior to the WT virus. Epistatic substitutions at residues 91 and 174 in NS3-Q80K stabilized the protein fold (p < 0.0001) and leveraged the WT protease stability. However, changes in protease stability inversely correlated with enzymatic activity. In infectious cell culture, these secondary substitutions were not associated with a gain of replicative fitness in NS3-Q80K variants. Using molecular dynamics, we observed that the total number of residue contacts in NS3-Q80K mutants correlated with protein folding stability. Changes in the number of contacts reflected the compensatory effect on protein folding instability by epistatic substitutions. In summary, epistatic substitutions in NS3-Q80K contribute to viral fitness by mechanisms not directly related to RNA replication. By compensating for protein-folding instability, epistatic interactions likely protect NS3-Q80K variants from immune cell recognition.
Identifiants
pubmed: 34339738
pii: S0021-9258(21)00833-4
doi: 10.1016/j.jbc.2021.101031
pmc: PMC8405986
pii:
doi:
Substances chimiques
Viral Nonstructural Proteins
0
Types de publication
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
101031Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest with the contents of this article.
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