The contractor shall provide NCI with literature surveillance information, which is required for the use of NCI staff in the Drug Development program. The information obtained from the Contractor will be used exclusively by the Natural Products Branch to select, for acquisition from other sources, compounds that are of interest to test for possible anti-AIDS activity. This will involve surveillance for: (1) new natural products reported in the literature; (2) compounds reported in the literature which are analogs of compounds of current interest for development as anti-AIDS agents; (3) compounds which are reported to have biological activities which may correlate with anti-AIDS activity. Also, the contractor will be responsible for the performance of retrospective taxonomic searches of families and genera which are sources of active leads. Surveillance of the literature will include the following information on natural products (plant, animal, microbial, fungal, marine sources) that will prove highly useful in determining priorities for active natural products resulting from the screening program developed for anti-AIDS activity: data relating to (a) chemical composition, and (b) biological activity of extracts or purified compounds obtained from natural products.
