Bioinformatics Study of HIV-1 Integrase Gene Sequences in Iranian Patients

Many inhibitors have been introduced for the treatment of HIV-1 infections; however, most of these efforts have been failed due to the presence of resistant strains. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the treatment-resistance mutations in the HIV virus integrase gene and the effect of these mutations on the structure, function, and physical and chemical properties of this enzyme using bioinformatics software.

36 HIV-1 integrase sequences form Iranian patients were obtained from the NCBI Genbank. After determining the mutations compared to the reference sequence, its post-modification and physical and chemical properties were described. Sequences subtypes, as well as the second and third structures, and possible interactions of this enzyme with the main inhibitors of the integrase were examined.

The analysis of selected sequences indicated a number of mutations in this protein. The subtype of most of the samples was A1 and the results of the analysis of the interaction showed that the mutations in the samples had no significant effect on the interaction of inhibitors with the integrase enzyme.

The binding site of these inhibitors is often found in the catalytic domain of integrase enzyme, and the results of this study depicted that most mutations were located outside this region, and this may be the main reason for the failure of these mutations to affect the interaction of inhibitors and integrase enzyme. Generally, the findings of this study suggest that anti-HIV inhibitors of HIV-1 can be used as an effective way to control this disease for Iranian patients.