A mutation in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 protease at position 88, located outside the active site, confers resistance to the hydroxyethylurea inhibitor SC-55389A.

The hydroxyethylurea human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) protease inhibitors SC-55389A and SC-52151 were used to select drug-resistant variants in vitro. One clinical HIV-1 strain (89-959) and one laboratory HIV-1 strain (LAI) were passaged in peripheral blood mononuclear cells or CEMT4 cells in the presence of SC-55389A. Resistant isolates from both strains consistently had a mutation to serine for asparagine at amino acid 88 (N88S) in the protease gene either alone or in combination with a change to phenylalanine at position 10. The N88S mutation, recreated by oligonucleotide-mediated site-directed mutagenesis in HXB2, was sufficient to confer resistance to SC-55389A. In contrast, SC-52151-resistant variants selected from the monocytotropic strain SF162 had multiple substitutions in the protease gene (I11V, M461, F53L, A71V, and N88D), and the N88D mutation, re-created by oligonucleotide-mediated site-directed mutagenesis in HXB2, did not confer resistance to SC-52151. The potencies of L735,524 and Ro31-8959 were not reduced when these compounds were assayed against variants with either the N88S or N88D substitution. Position 88 is in a helix that lies behind the substrate binding pocket and may indirectly influence inhibitor binding through interactions with the amino acid at position 31. The selected mutations were persistent in the viral populations after more than 20 passages in the absence of drugs. Passaging of virus first in SC-55389A alone and then in combination with SC-52151 resulted in the accumulation of more mutations in the protease gene (L10F, D35E, D37M, I47V, 154L, A71V, V82I, and S88D) and in the selection of a variant that was cross-resistant to multiple protease inhibitors. These results indicate that a mutation in the HIV-1 protease at a position that is located outside of the substrate binding pocket confers resistance to a protease inhibitor and that mutations in the protease gene accumulate with increasing selection pressure and can persist in the absence of selection pressure.