Patent highlights October-November 2015

摘要

The 'apolipoprotein B mRNA-editing enzyme-catalytic, polypeptide-like 3G' (A3G) is an intracellular defense mechanism against replication of retroviruses such as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Its cytidine deaminase activity alters the minus-strand DNA formed during reverse transcription, preventing HIV from completing its life cycle. HIV has evolved a countermeasure, the Vif protein, which impairs translation of the APOBEC3G mRNA into the A3G protein, and also promotes ubiquitination and subsequent proteasomic degradation of the protein by recruiting a specific E3 ligase complex, ElonginB/C-Cullin5 [l]. The search for small molecules that could protect A3G in HIV-infected cells has been going on for more than a decade [2].