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Targeting the retroviral ribonuclease H by rational drug design.
Journal article

Targeting the retroviral ribonuclease H by rational drug design.

  • Moelling K Institute for Medical Microbiology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. moelling@molgen.mpg.de
  • 2012-05-05
Published in:
  • AIDS (London, England). - 2012
Amino Acid Sequence
Anti-Infective Agents
DNA Replication
Drug Design
Gene Expression Regulation, Viral
Gene Silencing
HIV Reverse Transcriptase
HIV-1
Humans
Mutation
Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques
RNA, Viral
Ribonuclease H
Virus Replication
English Ribonucleases H or RNases H are conserved and exist in almost every organism. They generate and remove RNA primers, which are required for DNA replication. RNases H hydrolyze RNA in RNA-DNA hybrids. RNases H and related enzymes contribute to reduction of gene expression in antisense and small-interfering RNA mechanisms for gene silencing. Retroviruses code for RNases H, which are required for DNA provirus synthesis. Their RNase H is fused to the reverse transcriptase and essential for virus replication inside the cell. Retroviruses code for four enzymes, three of which have been targeted by antiretroviral therapies. A drug against the fourth one, the retroviral RNase H, does not yet exist. The viral but not cellular RNases H should be targeted by drug design. Some details will be discussed here. Furthermore, a compound is described, which enables the RNase H to kill cell-free HIV particles by driving the virus into suicide - with potential use as a microbicide.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/211641
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