1. The African natural product knipholone anthrone and its analogue anthralin (dithranol) enhance HIV-1 latency reversal
- Author
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Peter Imming, Marianne Harris, Zabrina L. Brumme, Mohamed Abdel-Mohsen, Kerstin Andrae-Marobela, Natalie N. Kinloch, Karam Mounzer, Leila B. Giron, Ian Tietjen, Silven Read, Simone Wappler, Toshitha Kannan, Mark A. Brockman, Luis J. Montaner, Aniqa Shahid, Khumoekae Richard, Andrew V. Kossenkov, Cole Schonhofer, Ruth Feilcke, and Jocelyn Rivera-Ortiz
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Drug Evaluation, Preclinical ,HIV Infections ,Pharmacology ,Microbiology ,Biochemistry ,Jurkat Cells ,03 medical and health sciences ,Gene expression ,Dithranol ,medicine ,Humans ,Latency (engineering) ,Molecular Biology ,Protein kinase C ,Anthracenes ,030102 biochemistry & molecular biology ,biology ,Chemistry ,Drug discovery ,Cell Biology ,Anthralin ,Provirus ,Virus Latency ,030104 developmental biology ,Histone ,Cell culture ,HIV-1 ,biology.protein ,medicine.drug - Abstract
A sterilizing or functional cure for HIV is currently precluded by resting CD4(+) T cells that harbor latent but replication-competent provirus. The “shock-and-kill” pharmacological ap-proach aims to reactivate provirus expression in the presence of antiretroviral therapy and target virus-expressing cells for elimination. However, no latency reversal agent (LRA) to date effectively clears viral reservoirs in humans, suggesting a need for new LRAs and LRA combinations. Here, we screened 216 compounds from the pan-African Natural Product Library and identified knipholone anthrone (KA) and its basic building block anthralin (dithranol) as novel LRAs that reverse viral latency at low micromolar concentrations in multiple cell lines. Neither agent's activity depends on protein kinase C; nor do they inhibit class I/II histone deacetylases. However, they are differentially modulated by oxidative stress and metal ions and induce distinct patterns of global gene expression from established LRAs. When applied in combination, both KA and anthralin synergize with LRAs representing multiple functional classes. Finally, KA induces both HIV RNA and protein in primary cells from HIV-infected donors. Taken together, we describe two novel LRAs that enhance the activities of multiple “shock-and-kill” agents, which in turn may inform ongoing LRA combination therapy efforts.
- Published
- 2020