The pol gene of HIV encodes three key enzymes for viral replication. Two of these enzymes, HIV reverse transcriptase (RT) and HIV protease; have received considerable attention in terms of clinically useful inhibitors. In contrast, the third enzyme of the pol gene, HIV integrase, has received much less attention. There are no drugs in clinical use for AIDS where the mechanism of action is inhibition of HIV integrase. The integration process is essential for HIV replication and there is no functional equivalent of HIV integrase in human cells. It is clear that new information on inhibitors of this enzyme is of critical importance in the anti-HIV drug discovery area. The long-term objectives of this research project are the discovery of therapeutically useful inhibitors of HIV integrase. Utilizing knowledge on the mechanism of action of HIV integrase, two potent inhibitors of HIV-1 integrase have been discovered in the current grant period . These inhibitors are conceptually novel dinucleotides that are recognized by HIV integrase and that inhibit both the 3'-processing and strand transfer steps involved in the incorporation of viral DNA into human DNA. In addition, these compounds exhibit resistance to degradation by nucleases. If this were not to be the case, these molecules would not be of therapeutic significance. This renewal proposal moves the project into the next phase of development which includes both new synthesis and comprehensive in vitro anti-HIV studies of nuclease-resistant, sequence-specific dinucleotides and their pro-drugs that are stereochemical and regiochemical analogs of the newly discovered inhibitors. One goal of the proposed work is to increase the activity (IC50) against integrase from the low micromolar into the nanomolar range, which would be therapeutically very significant. The planned in vitro anti-HIV studies include wild-type HIV and drug- resistant HIV isolates, as well as drug combination studies. It should be stated that correlation of nucleoside stereochemistry with inhibition of HIV reverse transcriptase by the corresponding triphosphates led to the discovery of some clinically useful anti-AIDS agents. Related reasoning and current data strongly suggest that conformational and configurational factors, as well as base sequence recognition, may be of critical importance in the discovery of therapeutically significant anti-AIDS dinucleotides that are directed at HIV integrase. This is a significant focus of the current proposal.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
7R01AI043181-06
Application #
6598072
Study Section
AIDS and Related Research 8 (AARR)
Program Officer
Gupta, Kailash C
Project Start
1998-05-01
Project End
2005-04-30
Budget Start
2002-06-01
Budget End
2003-04-30
Support Year
6
Fiscal Year
2002
Total Cost
$232,284
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Georgia
Department
Pharmacology
Type
Schools of Pharmacy
DUNS #
City
Athens
State
GA
Country
United States
Zip Code
30602
Nair, Vasu; Okello, Maurice (2015) Integrase Inhibitor Prodrugs: Approaches to Enhancing the Anti-HIV Activity of ?-Diketo Acids. Molecules 20:12623-51
Nair, Vasu; Okello, Maurice O; Mangu, Naveen K et al. (2015) A novel molecule with notable activity against multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. Bioorg Med Chem Lett 25:1269-73
Nair, Vasu; Okello, Maurice; Mishra, Sanjay et al. (2014) Pharmacokinetics and dose-range finding toxicity of a novel anti-HIV active integrase inhibitor. Antiviral Res 108:25-9
Bacsa, John; Okello, Maurice; Singh, Pankaj et al. (2013) Solid-state tautomeric structure and invariom refinement of a novel and potent HIV integrase inhibitor. Acta Crystallogr C 69:285-8
Okello, Maurice; Nishonov, Malik; Singh, Pankaj et al. (2013) Approaches to the synthesis of a novel, anti-HIV active integrase inhibitor. Org Biomol Chem 11:7852-8
Okello, Maurice; Mishra, Sanjay; Nishonov, Malik et al. (2013) Notable difference in anti-HIV activity of integrase inhibitors as a consequence of geometric and enantiomeric configurations. Bioorg Med Chem Lett 23:4112-6
Okello, Maurice O; Mishra, Sanjay; Nishonov, Malik et al. (2013) A novel anti-HIV active integrase inhibitor with a favorable in vitro cytochrome P450 and uridine 5'-diphospho-glucuronosyltransferase metabolism profile. Antiviral Res 98:365-72
Seo, Byung I; Uchil, Vinod R; Okello, Maurice et al. (2011) Discovery of a Potent HIV Integrase Inhibitor that Leads to a Prodrug with Significant anti-HIV Activity. ACS Med Chem Lett 2:877-881
Uchil, Vinod; Seo, Byung; Nair, Vasu (2007) A novel strategy to assemble the beta-diketo acid pharmacophore of HIV integrase inhibitors on purine nucleobase scaffolds. J Org Chem 72:8577-9
Chi, Guochen; Nair, Vasu; Semenova, Elena et al. (2007) A novel diketo phosphonic acid that exhibits specific, strand-transfer inhibition of HIV integrase and anti-HIV activity. Bioorg Med Chem Lett 17:1266-9

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