Structural insights into the recognition of nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors by HIV-1 reverse transcriptase: First crystal structures with reverse transcriptase and the active triphosphate forms of lamivudine and emtricitabine.

ABSTRACT: The retrovirus HIV-1 has been a major health issue since its discovery in the early 80s. In 2017, over 37 million people were infected with HIV-1, of which 1.8 million were new infections that year. Currently, the most successful treatment regimen is the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), which consists of a combination of three to four of the current 26 FDA-approved HIV-1 drugs. Half of these drugs target the reverse transcriptase (RT) enzyme that is essential for viral replication. One class of RT inhibitors is nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), a crucial component of the HAART. Once incorporated into DNA, NRTIs function as a chain terminator to stop viral DNA replication. Unfortunately, treatment with NRTIs is sometimes linked to toxicity caused by off-targe

SUBMITTER: Bertoletti N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6699100 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature