The Spirocyclic Imine from a Marine Benthic Dinoflagellate, Portimine, Is a Potent Anti-Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Therapeutic Lead Compound

In this study, we aimed to find chemicals from lower sea animals with defensive effects against human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). A library of marine natural products consisting of 80 compounds was screened for activity against HIV-1 infection using a luciferase-encoding HIV-1 vector. We identified five compounds that decreased luciferase activity in the vector-inoculated cells. In particular, portimine, isolated from the benthic dinoflagellate Vulcanodinium rugosum, exhibited significant anti-HIV-1 activity. Portimine inhibited viral infection with an 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) value of 4.1 nM and had no cytotoxic effect on the host cells at concentrations less than 200 nM. Portimine also inhibited vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein (VSV-G)-pseudotyped HIV-1 vector infection. This result suggested that portimine mainly targeted HIV-1 Gag or Pol protein. To analyse which replication steps portimine affects, luciferase sequences were amplified by semi-quantitative PCR in total DNA. This analysis revealed that portimine inhibits HIV-1 vector infection before or at the reverse transcription step. Portimine has also been shown to have a direct effect on reverse transcriptase using an in vitro reverse transcriptase assay. Portimine efficiently inhibited HIV-1 replication and is a potent lead compound for developing novel therapeutic drugs against HIV-1-induced diseases.