EFFECT OF A THIOBENZIMIDAZOLONE DERIVATIVE ON DNA STRAND TRANSFER CATALYZED BY HIV-1 REVERSE-TRANSCRIPTASE

Thiobenzimidazolone (TIBO) derivatives are known inhibitors of the DNA polymerase activity of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) reverse transcriptase (RT). The effect of a TIBO derivative ((+)-S-4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-9-chloro-5-methyl-6-(3-methyl-2-butenyl)-imidazol[4,5,1-jk]1,4-benzodiazapine-2-thione) DNA strand transfer reaction catalyzed by HIV-1 RT (which is a function of both the DNA polymerase and RNase H activities) was investigated by delineating the effect of the drug on the constitutive DNA polymerase and RNase H activities. Single nucleotide incorporation on template-primer 1 was used to study the DNA polymerase activity of HIV-1 RT while template-primer 2 was used to study the effect of TIBO on the RNase H activity (polymerase independent). The drug was found to decrease the amplitude of the presteady-state burst when preequilibrated with the enzyme substrate complex besides decreasing the steady-state rate of single nucleotide incorporations. In the absence of preincubation, TIBO did not affect the burst amplitude but decreased the steady-state rate after the pre-transient phase. This suggested that binding of TIBO to RT was affected by the presence of template-primer and required dissociation of the enzyme from the template primer for effective binding. The polymerase-independent RNase H activity was activated in the presence of TIBO. The effect of TIBO on the overall process of DNA strand transfer is a balance between its inhibition of the polymerase activity and its activation of the RNase H activity.