HIV-1 gains entry into target cells by sequentially interacting with cellular receptors and co-receptors. Both the receptor and co-receptor are recognized by HIV-1 envelope protein gpl20, which plays a key role in the entry process of HIV-1 into cells. The development of new inhibitors is essential since the viral enzyme reverse transcriptase (RT) is one of the first targets of antiretroviral therapy. It has been reported that a variety of natural plants, such as Artemisia rupestris L., have anti-viral pharmacological activity, and they might be the potential inhibitors of RT or V3 loop of gpl20 against HIV-1. RIQRGPGRAFVT1GK (R15K), the relatively conserved region of V3 loop, can be used for binding research. In this work, we analyzed the interactions between different extracts from Artemisia rupestris L. and R15K by affinity capillary electrophoresis (ACE). Moreover, we analyzed the interactions between different extracts from Artemisia rupestris L. and RT by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE). Our data showed that the chloroform extract ofArtemisia rupestris L. was active among the different plant extracts, which was consistent with previous studies. Taken together, our study provided a rapid screening method to seek anti-HIV ingredients in natural plants' extracts.
It is a new strategy to immobilize cells on the inner wall of a capillary column and use affinity capillary electrophoresis(ACE) to study receptor-ligand interactions or to screen natural products and compounds synthesized by combinatorial chemistry. In this paper, we developed a new method of immobilizing HEK293 cells on the inner wall of a capillary column. Four important experimental conditions were optimized, including cell injection density, PLL concentration, cell culturing time and sterile processing method. Immobilized cell-coated capillary columns prepared under the optimized experimental conditions exhibited good uniformity, stability and durability, which were suitable for capillary electrophoresis. The method could also be used to immobilize HEK293 cells over-expressing certain membrane receptors on the inner wall of a capillary. In this way, cell-coated capillary columns could be applied to ACE drug screening targeting certain membrane proteins.