Some insights into mechanism for binding and drug resistance of wild type and I50V V82A and I84V mutations in HIV-1 protease with GRL-98065 inhibitor from molecular dynamic simulations

The single mutations I50V, V82A and I84V are considered as the key residue mutations of the HIV-1 protease drug resistance. The rank of calculated absolute binding free energies using MM-PBSA method is in excellent agreement with experimental result. Enthalpic and entropic balance is analyzed to explain resistance in I50V and V82A having a higher entropic contribution than in the wild type (WT) complex. The reduced van der Waals energy explains the drug resistance of I84V to GRL-98065. Detailed binding free energies between GRL-98065 and individual protein residues are calculated to provide insights into the inhibitor-protein binding and drug-resistant mechanism. Our results show I50V and V82A have larger structural changes than I84V compared with WT.