The activity of human immunodeficiency virus protease is markedly increased at elevated salt concentration. The structural basis of this effect has been explored by several independent methods by using both the wild-type enzyme and its triple mutant (Q7K/L33I/ L63I) (Mildner, and the transition midpoint (D1 ⁄2 ) between the folded and unfolded states increase, indicating that the salt stabilizes the enzyme structure. These equilibrium data are supported by kinetic studies on the urea-mediated unfolding by measuring fluorescence change, red shifting in the maximum of the emission spectrum, and farand near-UV CD. The salt effects observed in urea-mediated unfolding reactions prevail upon heat denaturation. All these findings support the existence of a twostate equilibrium between the folded and unfolded proteins. The pH dependence of fluorescence intensity indicated that the conformation of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 protease should change in the catalytically competent pH region. It is concluded that preferential hydration stabilizes the protease structure in the presence of salt, providing entropic contribution to enhance the catalytic activity.AThe protease encoded by HIV-1 1 is involved in the specific processing of large viral polyproteins into individual structural proteins and enzymes. This prompted extensive investigations on HIV-1 protease as a potential therapeutic target of AIDS. The enzyme is a member of the aspartic protease family and exists as homodimer of identical polypeptide chains, each consisting of 99 amino acid residues (cf. Refs. 1 and 2). High salt concentration was found to enhance the catalytic activity, primarily by lowering the Michaelis constant (K m ), and it was suggested that the salting-out effect of NaCl decreased K m and increased k cat /K m , the specificity rate constant (3, 4). We have pointed out that K m values may be markedly dependent on pH, while the rate enhancement by salt is practically independent of K m and pH (5). Therefore, other factors, for example the conformational stability of the protein, may also be important. Indeed, raising the NaCl concentration frequently stabilizes the protein structure by preferential hydration (6). However, the effects of ionic strength on the conformational stability of HIV-1 protease have not yet been studied. To reveal whether or not the enhanced catalytic activity is associated with a more stable structure, we have examined the stability of the enzyme against urea, pH, and heat denaturation at different salt concentrations. A mutant enzyme designed to resist autolysis (7) has been used in most experiments.
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURESHIV-1 Protease-The enzyme was expressed in Escherichia coli and purified as described (5). The construction containing three mutations (Q7K/L33I/L63I) in the HIV-1 protease was kindly supplied by Dr. Tomasselli (7), and the enzyme was purified from inclusion bodies with the same method as used for the wild-type protease. The protein concentration was determined at 280 nm (5). The activity of enzym...