Fold-analysis of dengue virus protease by NMR with paramagnetic lanthanides

摘要

The dengue virus NS2B-NS3 protease (serotype 2) is an established drug target but it cannot be crystallised in its active form and it gives lousy NMR spectra. Nonetheless, by using pseudocontact shifts induced by four different paramagnetic lanthanide tags attached to three different sites of the protein, a model of the active protease has been established. It matches with incredible accuracy the crystal structure of the protease from the dengue virus serotype 4 published shortly afterwards.