by Wong Wah Yau. / Thesis (M.Ph.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1988. / Bibliography: leaves 219-228.

In the future, the 25 as internal loop region of Pro-RIP can be modified for the optimized recognition of proteases of other HIV strains. This approach opens a new opportunity for the anti-HIV application of maize RIP and other related type III RIPs. A modified maize RIP may also be applied to target other viruses and pathogens, for examples, hepatitis C and malaria, which are dependent on pathogen-encoded proteases for replication. / In this study, we provide an account on the generation of HIV-1 protease-sensitive maize RIP variants by first incorporating the HIV-1 protease recognition sequences to the internal inactivation region of the Pro-RIP. Among the five variants, three variants were cleaved and activated by HIV-1 protease in vitro and in vivo, resulting in an active two-chain form with N-glycosidase activity comparable to the fully active maize RIP. In addition, the variants inhibited viral replication in human T lymphocytes (C8166) infected by two T-tropic HIV-1 strains, HIV-1IIIB and HIV-1 RF/V82F/I84V, and their cytotoxicity towards uninfected cells was similar to the non-activated precursor (TAT-Pro). In comparison to TAT-Pro, variants TAT-Pro-HIV-MA/CA and Pro-TAT-Pro-HIV-p2/NC had 2- to 70-fold increase in the inhibition of p24 antigen production in the HIV-infected cells with low cytotoxicity towards uninfected C8166 cells. / Maize RIP is classified as a type III RIP. It is synthesized in the endosperm of maize as an inactive precursor (Pro-RIP), which contains a 25-amino acid internal inactivation region. During germination, a two-chain activated form (MOD) is generated by endogenous proteolysis of the internal inactivation region, whereas the two chains (16.5 and 8.5 kDa) are tightly associated without disulfide linkage. Our group has solved the crystal structures of both the Pro-RIP and MOD and found that this internal inactivation region is on the surface of the N-terminal domain in Pro-RIP . The removal of this internal inactivation region increases the inhibition of protein synthesis of rabbit reticulocyte lysate by over 600 folds. The presence of the internal inactivation region has led us to derive a novel strategy to enhance the specificity of maize RIP towards HIV-infected cells while minimizing its cytotoxic effect on normal cells. / Ribosome-inactivating proteins (RIPs) are RNA N-glycosidases which cleave the N-glycosidic bond of adenine-4324 at the alpha-sarcin/ricin (SR) loop of 28S rRNA. The depurination of the SR loop results in the inhibition of protein synthesis by impairing the binding of EF-1 or EF-2 to ribosomes. RIPs are therefore highly cytotoxic and have been used as abortificiant, anti-cancer and anti-HIV agents, either alone or as a component of immunotoxins. Many type I and II RIPs, such as MAP30, GAP30, DAP30, pokeweed antiviral protein (PAP) and ricin, have been reported to possess anti-HIV activity by inhibiting viral replication in vitro and in vivo though the anti-HIV mechanism is still unclear. / Law, Ka Yee. / Adviser: Pang-Chui Shaw. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 72-04, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 124-144). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

Ribosome-inactivating proteins (RIPs) are cytotoxins that remove a specific adenine from the sarcin-ricin loop (SRL) of large ribosomal RNA and in turn inhibit protein synthesis. Apart from N-glycosidase activity, some RIPs are found to possess antiviral activity and the suppression on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has been extensively studied. / Maize RIP stands out from other members for having an internal inactivation region and requires proteolytic removal to regain full activity. We have exploited the innate regulatory mechanism of maize RIP and increased its specificity towards HIV by adding the HIV protease recognition site to the inhibitory segment. Our results demonstrated the wild-type maize RIP is inhibitory on simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) replication in rhesus macaque and showed the HIV sensitive variant undergoes specific proteolytic activation upon viral infection and exerts enhanced in vitro antiviral effects. Therapeutic applications of RIPs are often restricted by short in vivo half-life and strong allergic responses and we attempted to improve the therapeutic potential of maize RIP by coupling with polyethylene glycol (PEG). Two mutants were generated for PEGylation and the resultant MOD-PEG₂₀ₖ variant was shown to be less sensitive to antibody recognition and has a prolonged plasma half-life, suggesting it may have enhanced therapeutic values. Besides, the applicability of protease-activation system in RIPs without inactivation loop was tested using ricin A chain (RTA) as the test case and HIV recognition sites were introduced either within or at C-terminus of the protein. The C-terminal RTA variants were specifically processed and had the anti-HIV activity increased in HIV-infected cells. / The present work illustrates the potential development of maize RIP as an anti-HIV agent and shows PEGylation can serve to enhance the protein for in vivo applications. Besides, the engineering of RTA with HIV recognition site suggests the potential of the protease-activation strategy to other RIPs for activity control. / 核糖體失活蛋白（RIPs）是一種細胞毒素蛋白，能特異地水解核糖體sarcin-ricin環（SRL），通過脫嘌呤抑制核糖體的蛋白合成功能。除此功能以外，很多RIP還具有抗病毒的活性，如抗人免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）的活性。 / 玉米RIP與其他的RIP不同，它含有一段內部失活結構域，需通過蛋白水解作用移除該結構域才能成為活性體。我們利用玉米RIP的這一特性，通過對內部結構域的改造，獲得了兩個可被HIV蛋白酶特異識別的突變體。體外實驗証明HIV可以特異地識別突變體上的蛋白酶切割位點，從而將其啟動產生抗病毒活性。另外，我們以蓖麻毒素A鏈（RTA）為例，分別於蛋白質的內部和碳端插入HIV識別序列，驗證了蛋白酶啟動系統在沒有內部失活結構域的RIP中，也能通過HIV蛋白酶的切割而活化並取得抗病毒活性。我們還揭示玉米RIP活性體可以有效抑制猿免疫缺陷病毒（SIV）在感染恒河猴體內的複制。此外，我們嘗試通過與聚乙二醇（PEG）融合來優化玉米RIP的免疫原性和半衰期，成功製備了兩種融合突變體，MOD-PEG₂₀ₖ顯示較不容易被抗體識別且延長了血液半衰期。 / 綜上所述，我們的研究表明玉米RIP作為抗HIV抑制劑具有良好的研發前景，而RTA的改造展示蛋白酶啟動系統可應用於其他RIP，同時我們還證明了PEG修飾可以很好的應用於蛋白類藥物的研發。 / Au, Ka Yee. / Thesis M.Phil. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2014. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-95). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on 17, October, 2016). / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only.