Scientists at the Yale University have developed compounds that maintain anti-HIV movement against drug-resistant mutants superior to anything FDA-endorsed medications. The compounds restrain the capacity of a viral enzyme, called reverse transcriptase, which is basic for HIV replication.
This newly developed inhibitor also called compound 25a also sticks to both the “wild-type” and the mutant forms of the reverse transcriptase.
Studying it in detail, scientists found that the new reverse transcriptase inhibitors were better able to adapt their shapes’ to bind to mutant HIV reverse transcriptase than existing agents.
The researchers report in the online journal eLife.