Cheminformatics methods for novel nanopore analysis of HIV DNA termini

Background: Channel current feature extraction methods, using Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) have been designed for tracking individual-molecule conformational changes. This information is derived from observation of changes in ionic channel current blockade "signal" upon that molecule's interaction with (and occlusion of) a single nanometer-scale channel in a "nanopore detector". In effect, a nanopore detector transduces single molecule events into channel current blockades. HMM analysis tools described are used to help systematically explore DNA dinucleotide flexibility, with particular focus on HIV's highly conserved (and highly flexible/reactive) viral DNA termini. One of the most critical stages in HIV's attack is the binding between viral DNA and the retroviral integrase, which is influenced by the dynamic-coupling induced high flexibility of a CA/TG dinucleotide positioned precisely two base-pairs from the blunt terminus of the duplex viral DNA. ...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2006
• Where: BMCBI
• Authors: Stephen Winters-Hilt, Matthew Landry, Mark Akeson, Maria Tanase, Iftekhar Amin, Amy Coombs, Eric Morales, John Millet, Carl Baribault, Srikanth Sendamangalam
• Keywords: BMCBI 2006, Channel Current Blockades, Current Blockades, Viral Dna