Expression and purification of dengue virus NS5 polymerase and development of a high-throughput enzymatic assay for screening inhibitors of dengue polymerase

Methods Mol Biol. 2013:1030:237-47. doi: 10.1007/978-1-62703-484-5_19.

Abstract

The nonstructural protein 5 (NS5) of dengue virus (DENV) plays a central role in the virus replication. It functions as a methyltransferase and an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. As such, it is a promising target for antiviral drug development. To develop a high-throughput biochemical assay for screening compound libraries, we expressed and purified the polymerase domain of the dengue NS5 protein in bacterial cells. The polymerase activity is measured using a scintillation proximity assay. This homogeneous and high--throughput assay enables screening of compound libraries for identifying polymerase inhibitors against DENV. In this chapter we describe the methods to express and purify the dengue NS5 polymerase from E. coli and a validated high-throughput enzymatic assay for screening inhibitors of NS5 polymerase.

MeSH terms

  • Antiviral Agents / pharmacology*
  • Dengue Virus / drug effects*
  • Dengue Virus / physiology*
  • Enzyme Assays / methods
  • Enzyme Inhibitors / pharmacology
  • Escherichia coli / genetics
  • Escherichia coli / metabolism
  • Gene Expression*
  • High-Throughput Screening Assays*
  • Humans
  • Plasmids / genetics
  • Recombinant Proteins / genetics
  • Recombinant Proteins / isolation & purification
  • Transformation, Bacterial
  • Viral Nonstructural Proteins / antagonists & inhibitors*
  • Viral Nonstructural Proteins / genetics*
  • Viral Nonstructural Proteins / isolation & purification

Substances

  • Antiviral Agents
  • Enzyme Inhibitors
  • NS5 protein, dengue virus
  • Recombinant Proteins
  • Viral Nonstructural Proteins